Reality versus perception: A reality check

Like most of my family, I grew up working in restaurants. During my university days I worked at a nice restaurant in a hotel in Boulder, Colorado that no longer exists. One day, after a customer complained about their service, I overheard the manager and waitperson discussing what had happened with this customer. The waitperson was trying to explain that the customer’s account wasn’t accurate–that the waitperson’s account of the events was what really happened. The manager then calmly explained that it didn’t matter who was right. The customer’s perception of how their meal went was their reality.

We can look at perception from a group (endurance) training perspective as well. Alex Hutchinson wrote an enlightening article, How the Social Dynamics of a Training Group Can Hold You Back. Mr. Hutchinson explains that social ranking in a group may have more to do with athletic performance than one’s actual fitness. To put it another way: One’s perception of their standing in a group determines one’s performance/reality. Apparently, we learn (or perceive) our place in the pecking order and then become reluctant to challenge it—crazy.

This article on the McKinsey site, Navigating the labor mismatch in US logistics and supply chains, talks about how the Great Attrition has impacted industries across the board, and especially transportation and logistics. And it describes the specifics regarding labor mismatches for the labor pool. This paragraph really struck me:

Employers are looking at transactional factors, such as compensation or alternative job offers, but these are not the primary drivers of attraction or attrition. Employees place greater value on relational elements, such as a sense of belonging or having caring and trusting teammates at work.

Think about it. Employers perceive that their employees are leaving because a higher-paying job is available elsewhere, when the reality is (for the most part) that they’re going someplace where they feel more valued. I prefer to have both.

There are a bunch of folks who perceive NetApp^® as a NAS hardware vendor. When NetApp started out (30 years ago this year) that misperception might have been understandable. Fast forward a few decades and that old perception still persists. The reality is that NetApp is a cloud-led data-centric software company. It’s true. Just ask our good friends at Amazon Web Services. NetApp and AWS have been partners for a while now. In fact, this past December at AWS re:Invent, AWS recognized NetApp as its ISV Design Partner of the Year – US. How’s that for a reality check?

In addition to AWS, NetApp also partners with some folks who are perceived as knowing a thing or two about software: Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft for their SQL Server database. Are you wondering how you’ll get to the cloud with the present IT skills gap? Or how to effectively consolidate Oracle databases? Or address customer churn? When you’re ready to move forward, check out NetApp—the cloud-led data-centric software company.