I Guess Training Works!

From: a Recent Workshop Attendee

Mike,

I had to go into a meeting that we were struggling with come basic concepts (basic to me anyways). Before the meeting I put together a POP. I shared the Process with the guy who was to deliver the material so he knew the way I would drive out the meeting. I shared the Purpose and Outcomes with the attendees, and I clarified and ratified it with them. They appeared very subdued, so I imagined (see I am learning) they were thinking “who is this jackass bringing this nonsense to us.”

What happened was, the meeting started on time, we got to the point, we stayed on topic, we got back to topic if someone started to get into details that weren’t part of our purpose, and we finished in 45 minutes, what has been taking us hours and hours to try to clarify and understand particular knowledge areas.

I followed up with two of them, one after the meeting and the other at the end of the day. The first guy I asked if he thought the meeting flowed better than in the past. His response was “F*** Ya, the content was straight forward.” The second person shared it with me without asking. She said “it was so easy to stay focused when we knew exactly what we were to cover, nothing more, nothing less.”

I think the reason they seemed subdued to me was that they were focused, understood why they were there and were not anxious that it was going to be a firing range with no order.

Actually, you added 1.5 hours to my day as well since I was asked to go to a meeting and one manager from my client was adamant that I attend. I continued to ask what the purpose was since it was very unclear. He continued to try to persuade me to go so I said, let’s ask another manager who was invited what the purpose was. They both contradticted each other. In fact the organizer of the meeting had a different idea of what the meeting was about. I said, I would be more than willing to go if I was assured that they could clearly tell me what the purpose was and that I could contribute not only to the purpose but the deliverables that were to come out of the meeting. They told me not to attend the meeting. All of them later (after the meeting) came to me at the end of the day and said it was good that I didn’t go because the group focused on something else completely.

So there you go Bud. You just made me 18% more efficient plus more affective with my team. So thanks Mike for sharing those skills with me. I am looking forward to continue to work on them. Sorry for the long winded email but I wanted to share this with you.

Andy