I really don’t care for meetings, although people invite me to meetings on topics of little interest to me. One day, I learned the reason behind these invitations. “At some point,” this ambassador said, “I can trust that you will say something to get the discussion back on track.” Well, what I thought was a character flaw turned out to be positive attribute. But just what had I said?
- “Just how is that going to work?” A lot of talk around the conference table is ‘woulda-coulda-shoulda.” At some point, there has to be some action and that action is supposed to result in something (hopefully positive). This question reminds people that someone has to actually do something.
- “Are you sure about that?” Smart people are not always practical people. While answering the first question, they may not notice that step three or four of their solution depends upon something magical happening. With this question, I am giving them an opportunity to self-discover a critical logical lapse.
- “I don’t understand.” This is usually accompanied by a quizzical look, I’ve been told. Again, this is another opportunity for self-discovery that some key point is missing.
- If they persist, this next one is where I sit back and say, “I don’t think so.” Maybe whatever they are proposing will work, but there is nothing in my experience leads me to think success is eminent if they pursue this line of thinking. I could be surprised, but, “I don’t think so.”
- “At what point was this a good idea?” Depending upon the context, and my mood, this question can be positive (‘up to what point was this working and we can work from there?”) or negative (“you do realize that this was truly never had a chance to working?”)
This script has worked well for me over the years–even before I realized I had such a script. If the discussion isn’t going anywhere, feel free to adopt or adapt this approach. Beware, you may find yourself invited to more meetings!