Rationalization of the Complaint Free Zone

Last week I decided to tackle the challenge of completing ‘21 Complaint Free Days‘. To complete this task is certainly no mean feat and I decided to enlist the medical, mathematical and statistical side of my brain to assist in the endeavor. In the absence of a ‘purple band’ to placate my complaining tendencies – I took a cognitive rather than a physical route to enlightenment.

As with all good research I needed to gain an understanding of the problem first. That required classification of the issues at hand. The resultant ACE/ICE ratio was to form the baseline, the diving board if you like, that was to propel me towards new world order…but questions, oh so many questions.

Surely the world was not so perfect that a little complaining would not be amiss? What if I encountered a situation that required direct and appropriate verbal intervention?

As a result I defined the ‘complaint generating situation/stimulus’ in which I became consciously aware of negative interpersonal/situational events, or circumstances that could have or did evoke either a direct or indirect complaining outburst.

• ACE [Appropriate Complaining Episode] – Situations or circumstances that evoke a direct negative interpersonal reaction. E.g direct verbal abuse or physical assault. Such potential complaint generating episodes are best dealt with by a ‘direct complaint’
• ICE [Inappropriate complaining episodes] – Systemic or climatic complaints. These include external/internal situations that are unlikely to be altered/affected by a direct complaint e.g. ‘It is so hot, I hate this stifling heat’
• DC [Direct Complaints] – ‘Healthy and Open communication skills’ – Appropriate communication by initiating speaking directly to the person that is able to affect the change you seek e.g. ‘waiter, my soup is cold’ ‘I would appreciate it if you abstained from poking my thigh with cocktail sticks’
• IDC [Indirect Complaint] – ‘Bitching, backbiting, whining, winging’ – Inappropriate ‘discussion’ of situations/persons or events with persons ‘not‘ directly able to affect appropriate change.

Having defined the ‘complaint parameters’ I proceeded to record each ‘potential complaint generating episode‘ [ACE + ICE] and the resultant response [DC or IDC or No Complaint (NC)]. Initially I was aiming to reduce my accumulated complaining episodes [MACE] and to increase both my ACE/ICE ratio and DC/IDC ratio from tiny fractions towards whole numbers.

The results were quite amazing…

I think the key elements for me have been

• MACE: Marked reduction in ‘perceived aggravation’ and ‘negative interpersonal interaction’ with a 16x reduction in daily episodes of complaint [MACE]
• ACE/ICE: Marked improvement of the ACE/ICE ratio. Episodes of complaint were therefore proportionately more appropriate.
• DC/VCE: The proportion of appropriate complaints directly verbalized [DC] as a proportion of the ‘total number of verbalized complaints‘ [VCE = DC + IDC] trended upwards and reached threshold [1.0] by day 7 i.e all verbal complaints were ‘direct’ and had the potential to affect change!