Is WIIFM a frog? No! Is WIIFM an exotic type of food? No! Is WIIFM the name of some god-forsaken bloke you would love to hate? No! Is WIIFM the name of a strange disease for which you need vaccination like the H1NI swine flu? No! Yet, WIIFM is everywhere you look. WIIFM has a life of its own. WIIFM can be your friend and your foe, all at once. It can make you or break you. If you ever lose sight of other people’s WIIFMs towards you, you’ll forever live to regret it.
So what is WIIFM, this fascinating phenomenon? It stands for What’s In It For Me? – which, in abbreviated form, is spelt WIIFM. But the pronunciation is w-i-f-e-m. You can only pronounce wifem well through a strategic landing, with a soft touch of the lower and upper lips. Suck in your tongue gently. Well, don’t bother to read this article if you can’t pronounce wifem. Now, say after me – wifem. Good effort. You are now allowed to read the following and to adopt this loaded word in your vocabulary.
WIIFM is an affirmation that the ‘me’ is king/queen. In most situations, self interest reigns supreme, proof-positive that we‘re born alone and we die alone. That’s why it’s a good strategy to figure out people’s WIIFMs when you’re dealing with them. The knowledge can give you a heads-up and position you properly for success in interpersonal/group encounters.
The cancer of WIIFM
Politicians have WIIFMs – a lot of it; promises galore; lie-lie. Voters have WIIFMs but believe politicians at their peril. Companies have WIIFMs. Customers have WIIFMs. Pastors have WIIFMs (shout Hallelujah!). Church-goers have WIIFMs (Oh Jesus, make us prosperous). Road contractors have WIIFMs too. Have you checked the potholes, man-holes and coffin-look-alikes on our roads lately? WIIFM eats away at our roads.
Doctors and nurses have WIIFMs too. Woe unto you if you or your loved one is sick and need the care of a doctor/nurse who is cloaked in WIIFM attire. Pray very hard or else, you go die oh! Diseases expose human frailties and vulnerabilities so we can’t afford to be at the mercy of the WIIFMs of medical personnel.
WIIFMs are like cancer that eats away at our national development. Corruption is the king of all our national WIIFMs. The self-interest that emanates from WIIFM nibbles away at our efforts to develop our beautiful country. Ours has become an ‘each-one-for-him/herself, God-for-us-all’ situation. For the most part, every one seeks after his/her interests – first and foremost. Our culture is supposed to be a collectivist culture where we care for each other. Yet, individualism has crept in and erected signposts.
Take the mobile phone companies for instance. They come up with all sorts of mind-blowing memorable lie-lie slogans to get our attention, then..... What’s the full truth in the assertions of “Everywhere you go”, “One Touch”, “What a wonderful world!”, “Great talk with value” and “It’s your time”?. I use Vodafone broadband to access the Internet. I pay my monthly bills but never get the service for a full month. If I’m lucky, it works for up to two weeks in a month. What kind of lie-lie corporate WIIFM is that?
When an organization is called a “Non-profit organization” (NGO), the name assumes that the entity and the people behind it intend to and want to do something good for society. Don’t be fooled because not all that glitters is gold. Always pause to think of the WIIFMs in the many NGOs (e.g. orphanages) you see around. Float in the wisdom of the late Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman’s famous saying, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” We all therefore have a responsibility to shine our eyes when things are presented to us, and pose critical WIIFM questions about even the noblest matters.
There are projects in this country which have suffered deadly injuries due to the WIIFM factor. Think of roads that are washed away after a single rainfall. Once upon a time, the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project was launched with lofty goals that included putting boats on the lagoon to overlook hotels. But today, the Korle Lagoon still smells into the highest heavens. It remains a stain on the conscience of Accra. How much money has been pumped into the project? Who benefited from WIIFMs?
Adopting the ‘What’s in it for me” approach to win people over is superb. WIIFM can be a strategy for attitudinal and behavioural change. Other people’s WIIFMs are their motivators. So when you want someone to do something for you, a good strategy is to move away from your own WIIFMs and consider what is in it for the other person in the encounter. It’s the equivalence of putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. Once you know the person’s WIIFM, you can then launch your tactics to get him to change his mind.
Thinking from a WIIFM vantage point does not have to take a lot of time. It’s a mindset and for some issues, can be done within a matter of seconds or minutes. But assessing the WIIFM for certain issues could entail a lot of thinking. There are WIIFMs in most situations. You just have to pause to think about it. Some WIIFMs are not that obvious and need to be given critical reflection.
Whenever I encounter wild and knuckle-headed taxi/trotro drivers on our roads who overtake ‘by-heart’ with the assumption that they permanently have a right of way, apart from gifting them an occasional insult or two, I wish they could consider some WIIFMs. If they do, they would realize that their wild inconsiderate selfish actions can lead to accidents that would waste their time and deprive them of the use of the vehicle and further deprive them of an income.
The big problem in living a life from a WIIFM vantage point is that you can easily become overly suspicious of people. It’s important to acknowledge that you have WIFIIMs because that awareness can wake you up to the type of self-centeredness and selfishness that are inimical to the common good.
The WatchWoman’s WIIFM
As I end this piece, I find myself wondering – what’s my own WIIFM factor in writing this column week after week? Confession: I get the unique opportunity to colonize you with my thoughts. How audacious! The fact is that I’m a restless soul who loves to write – my double trouble. I have set issues I’m very passionate about. So for me, it’s therapeutic to pour out my thoughts on a weekly basis. This is the kind of therapy that cures what may be an addiction to writing.
No matter my weekly circumstances – I write. I’ve written from a hospital bed. I’ve written when I could barely walk –after a surgery. I’ve written at airports and on airplanes. So I thank you, dear reader, for allowing me to benefit from my own WIIFM urges. I get so much from you than you can ever imagine.
But the question on the flipside is: What’s your own WIIFM for continuing to read this column?
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