Читать книгу Will there be Donuts?: Start a business revolution one meeting at a time - David Pearl - Страница 40
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One of the realest “real meetings” I ever attended was held by a teacher and inspiration of mine, the enigmatic and bear-like Michael Breen. Pioneer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a great business consultant, Michael is not a man of many words but you had better listen up, because the ones he uses matter.
Michael walked to the front of the room, looked at us with a smile and simply asked: “Any Questions?”
That was it. As it happened, there were a load of questions and the meeting was a fascinating one. Two hours shot by in a flash. But if there hadn’t been a question, Michael wouldn’t have continued. It would have been the shortest meeting on record. But it would have been real.
I am tempted to treat this chapter the same way. Having comprehensively savaged, mocked, and character-assassinated all those “nearly meetings,” I am hoping that the value of really meeting is self-evident. And leave it at that.
However …
I have been working in business long enough to know that there will be questions. And they are going to come at you thick and fast when you start changing meetings.
To you it’s obvious that really meeting your fellow humans in an effective, authentic, and elegant way will generate more value in your company, improve relationships with colleagues and customers, resolve conflicts at home, at work and in the world. You think it’s unarguable that genuine rather than fake meetings lead to better decisions, clearer actions, more interesting products and services.
You’d think. However, the questions and challenges will come. People don’t like mediocrity, but it is amazing how hard they will argue for it when you offer a change.
One person you are going to bump into on your travels isthe Rolex Warrior. He (for it usually is a he) will walk—orrather weave—up to you in the bar at some point, wearing astriped shirt that makes your eyes strobe. And he’s going toask you, point-blank: “What’s the point of this really meetingstuff?”
It’s a rhetorical question. He means, “There is no point. Business is the way it is. It may be mediocre, but there’s no way things are going to change.”
I look him coolly in the eye. “The value of really meeting? Ask your wife. Sorry, ex-wife.” That’s in my fantasy anyway, where I am played by a bullet-dodging, black-coated Keanu Reeves. Back in real life, I’m gripping my beer with a polite smile and I probably point out that:
