Читать книгу Will there be Donuts?: Start a business revolution one meeting at a time - David Pearl - Страница 43

There was a great moment in music history, in around 1300, when church choirs stopped chanting in unison and burst into glorious “polyphony,” where lots of diverse voices singing different lines weave together into a rich, complex harmony.

Really meeting is like that. It operates in quadrasonic surround sound. It enables all voices to be heard … even the quiet ones.

As Thomas Breuer explains, it can be a challenge, but it’s worth the effort:

When you put people together from very different fields and hierarchy levels you have to spend time to make sure that everyone really speaks up and each individual contribution is recognized. Hierarchy in innovative meetings is counterproductive. I imagine it’s a bit like how an orchestral conductor has to pay equal attention to the entire brass section and the solo piccolo.

If I have a lot of people sitting around me who are senior management peers, then fine. But if you have physicians, statisticians or analysts responsible for the data management of a project it is essential to encourage them to speak up and bring them up to a level where they can contribute.

I find that these people often have crucial insights to offer that raise the conversation or bring it down to earth. If they don’t speak up and instead leave the meeting thinking “Too bad,” we are losing value.

Everyone is used to the cliché there are no stupid questions, but to create an atmosphere where this is really the case requires a lot from the person running the meeting. Everyone has to know there will be no punishment for so-called “dumb” suggestions. The creation of a common understanding, culture, platform is important. Management has to create a common language, a license to operate, so that people dare to speak up.

I remember a safety meeting when the imminent swine flu pandemic and the expected distribution of tens of millions of vaccine doses was going to result in an exponential growth of safety events; 20 to 25 times more than the safety department could normally handle. We were starting to think about this. Who else can rapidly join the safety team? Can we get additional resources from other functions in- or outside the company? Then all of a sudden one guy spoke up. He is not very senior but he really knows our operation. He’s what I call a quiet voice. “You know,” he said, “resource is only one way to approach this. Another way is to look at our processes and take fat out of the system. Why don’t we engage with governmental agencies and explore ways to stagger reporting on products which have been in the market for 15 to 20 years?”

This one comment triggered an avalanche of new ideas. That’s what I mean by a really inclusive meeting.