Banishing Barney Fife Syndrome

by Jean Houston Shore, CSP, CPA, MBA
Copyright 2000

"He never said in a single sentence what could be stretched to three or more paragraphs."

A friend recently told me that she had finally figured out the perfect way to describe a person she worked with - Barney Fife! I laughed out loud as I recalled the humorous sheriff’s deputy from the 1960s classic The Andy Griffith Show. What in the world, I thought, would cause my friend to make such an unflattering comparison?

To explain, she described one of those episodes where Barney was put in charge. You’ll remember that Barney always took his responsibilities very seriously. On any day you could find Barney giving a long dissertation about some nuance of the law or defining detailed procedures about how the townspeople should handle an upcoming event. Barney would raise his voice, assume an air of authority and then go on and on about whatever was important to him, oblivious to the eyes glazing over in the crowd.

This was my friend’s boss. He never said in a single sentence what could be stretched to three or more paragraphs. He never chose a simple approach over a more complex one. He made things more complicated than they needed to be — at least these were my friend’s observations.

Now, did my friends boss purposefully choose to make things difficult? Probably not. But it is a fact of life that we often consider our own needs in a communication interaction, not the needs of the other party to the communication. This course of action results in Barney Fife Syndrome and BFS is deadly to proactive communication in the workplace.

TIPS FOR BANISHING BARNEY

Here are some tips on how to banish Barney Fife Syndrome from your workplace:

• First, learn to recognize the symptoms. Glazed eyes, yawning, and general looks of boredom are clues that our message is not getting through to our listeners with quite the same power and impact that we intended.
• Second, remember the “what’s-in-it-for-me” question. We all want to know why we should listen to someone who speaks to us. If we believe that the information they have is vital to our success, we listen. If not, we tune out. If your listeners tune out, you may not have adequately piqued their interest. Consider your subject from their perspective and phrase your message in words that are familiar to your hearers.
• Third, don’t be verbose. Be concise and succinct. That is to say, don’t go on and on saying what you have just said over and over. Don’t be redundant. Don’t repeat yourself. Don’t say things again and again. (See?)
• Fourth, include only the needed level of detail. Barney pumped up his ego by spelling things out in excruciating detail. You can communicate better by choosing your words and your level of detail from the nonverbal clues given by the listener. Don’t be afraid to ask if the level of detail is too much or too little.
• Fifth, check for understanding when giving instructions. To make sure your listeners “got it,” ask them to describe in their own words what you have asked them to do.
• Finally, remember that Barney Fife Syndrome doesn’t appear only in face-to-face conversations. Scour your written work (memos, reports, and e-mail) for signs of Fife. Watch out for BFS in your voice mail messages too.

While Barneys intentions were honorable, few townspeople took him seriously. To make our mark in our chosen industries, we shouldnt emulate Barney Fifes one-way communication style. After all, in todays complicated world, that might constitute a "Subsection 4-11."

E-mail: info@thinkbusiness.com