There's No Accounting for Taste

Don’t ask, “What would you like?” or “Do you like this?” of people not prepared or appropriate to answer the question.

If you do, you potentially lock yourself into either having to work with something that doesn’t make sense or isn’t the best choice based on objective standards. Instead, use questions such as:

• “Does this meet the objective?”


• “Is this on target (or on message or on strategy)?”


• “Does this reflect what you were trying to accomplish?”

Each one implies a perspective relative to some objective measure. In that way, if someone responds based on personal taste, you can bring the conversation back to an external standard.

The result should lead to a more fact-based conversation and decision when there’s no accounting for taste.