Test Your Own Service Quality

You are about to design a personal experiment on one quality from the article — something you will actually try in a real interaction this week.

State Your Hypothesis

Choose ONE quality from the article — patience, verbal precision, cognitive flexibility, or genuine curiosity. Write: 'If I deliberately practise ___ in my next customer or colleague interaction, then ___.' Be specific about what you predict will change.

Isolate the Variable

Name the ONE behaviour you will change — and what you will keep exactly the same as usual. This is your control. Without it, you cannot know what caused the result.

CHANGE THIS

KEEP THIS CONSTANT

Measure and Predict

How will you know it worked? Write one measurable signal (the other person's response, a specific word they use, a shift in tone). Then mark your confidence on the spectrum below — how likely is this experiment to confirm your hypothesis?

Very unlikely to work

Certain to work

Name the Disconfirming Result

What specific outcome would prove your hypothesis WRONG? Be exact — not 'it doesn't go well' but the precise signal that would make you reconsider. Look back at Step 1: does your prediction still feel honest now that you have named this?

The Real Question

Are you more afraid of the experiment failing — or succeeding and discovering this quality costs you something (time, control, energy)? Write one word that names what is actually at risk for you, then explain in one sentence why that word is honest.

Why that word?

Discuss Before you write your final word, tell your partner your hypothesis — do they believe you will actually try it?

Work01