It’s Time for an MRI

It’s time we all had an MRI.  No, not that kind of MRI, a professional MRI, i.e., a Most Respectful Interpretation. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not make up this acronym but rather it was shared with me by a former boss who made it mandatory reading for his management team, and I’m so glad he did as it’s something I think about constantly, have shared it with many people, and have used it to defuse many a high-stakes situation.  As far as I know, the original article can be found here: https://fs.blog/most-respectful-interpretation/  If you want to stop reading here, and go read the original article, do it, it’s worth it.  I won’t be offended.  Unless you work for me and I asked you to read this article! 

A professional MRI (Most Respectful Interpretation) is exactly what it stands for: it’s choosing to take the most optimistic view of a situation and give the benefit of doubt to a person.  It’s simple in concept, difficult in practice. 

It’s about choosing to try and see the good in a difficult situation.  It’s about practicing understanding, empathy, and compassion.  It’s about working with people to try and get the best favourable outcome for all.  And it’s something I’ve parroted often when a frustrated staff member comes to me complaining about so and so; I will often say, ‘how does this look if we MRI it?’.  (Yes, more than one of my team members has probably internally rolled their eyes and thought I’m cheesy, but I stand by the fact that it works.)  It makes the person feel better once they remember we’re all human, we’re all balancing numerous priorities, we’re all fallible, we’re all trying to do the best we can, and – most important of all – no one is out to get them by intentionally trying to make them look bad. 

Compassion is the number one skill we should have in the workplace.  Forget doing mandatory KYC training for the umpteenth time, let’s get some mandatory empathy and compassion training in the workplace!  (If you are a central bank worker reading this, I’m just kidding and hyperbolizing for effect…please don’t blacklist me…I do sincerely understand the need for mandatory KYC training [sweating as she’s typing…]).

Thoughts and opinions are purely my own, no ChatGPT here.  The above is just a brief conceptual summary, for more specific details, feel free to use ChatGPT.  I’d suggest a prompt along the lines of:

The following situation has happened [explain] and I am feeling [insert emotion, most likely frustration].  I am trying to take a more respectful interpretation of circumstances; can you please provide some plausible explanations as to why this situation has happened as well as provide me with tips to help me move [objective] forward?