I've sat in more meetings than I could possibly recall which is probably a good thing as I suspect many of them were a complete waste of everyone's time. I like my meetings brief and focused: and am so frequently disappointed.
Now that I've said that, I want to write about the most unfocused, tedious and productive meetings I've attended. Every year for about three weeks I would sit in meetings with one staff member and two senior managers. These meetings would last for about an hour and were built around only two prepared questions: "How do you think you are doing?" and "What can we do to improve the business?"
Now for a little imagination exercise: you can call it creativity training if you want - that seems quite popular. This exercise is very simple and in two parts. Part One: you are a long term employee with XYZ Widgets and you understand how everything works; you have a thorough knowledge of the history and relationships within XYZ Widgets. How do you think you would answer the questions? Remember you know how this enterprise works: you can read its DNA.
Second part of the thought experiment: You are a thoroughly competent widget maker but have only been with XYZ Widgets for 6 months. You know how to make widgets; you've studied widget making and have some experience with other Widget makers. How do you answer the questions?
The purpose of the thought experiment is not to answer the questions as the two subjects, but to examine how you imagine those people would answer.
The first time I did these interviews the experienced staff came first and the newer staff last. By the end of day 3 I was ready to self harm in order to avoid the next interviews: the experienced staff knew how it was done and while they had ideas the openly said there was no point in doing X because Y wouldn't allow it. Some whined and some just made sure it wasnt there fault: whatever it was. Sure there were some positive things but in general the interviewees considered the whole thing a waste of their time. Then came the newer hires. They hadn't been assimilated and asked questions and made suggestions. It was fantastic. They whined that this seemed pointless, or that was so slow, or why couldnt this be done. Im going to call it bitching simple because it was so self centered; but from an organisational process viewpoint it was brilliant bitching, or wonderful whining.
Then it dawned on me that the newer hires were looking at the business from outside and that that vision was unblinkered by the prevailing organisational culture. There was no "it can't be changed. We've always done it this way." The insight of innocence.
Try it out. It's likely you'll learn something.
What do you think we did a year later for the next round of I interviews? Put the new hires first and tested their ideas with experience. We learned to appreciate, and utilise, the insight of innocence.
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