Engaging people in meaningful discussion in your meetings, retreats, Town Halls or offsites isn’t easy. One of the biggest challenges is gaining, and then keeping people’s attention long enough to have a useful dialogue and build the commitment you need to make change happen.
Meetings. Whether you love them or hate them, having conversations with colleagues is the most effective way we can work together to solve some of the challenging, complex problems organizations of all kinds face.
But how many times have you been in a meeting, or even a workshop learning something new, and…nothing happened afterwards. Research by Gallup asserts that 70% of change initiatives fail.
Conversation is kind of like a glass of red wine. When you create time and space, meetings can be much more enjoyable! Red wine tastes better with some aeration because it allows the tannins to soften and the flavours to mellow.
It’s hard to make your conversations count when you’re deluging people with content, and not building in time, space, or opportunity for dialogue.
There is too much bafflegab going on these days, which the dictionary defines as “incomprehensible or pretentious language, especially bureaucratic jargon.” Doctors speaking jargon about medical procedures, disease classes, diagnostics and patient simply cannot take it all in is a prime example. As a formal civil servant in the provincial government myself, I’ve spoken and written my share of bureaucratic jargon too.
It started with my front door not closing properly. A little more force needed to close it. But no big deal, right? Fast forward a couple of months, he door now needs to be slightly lifted in order to close. I practically tiptoe through my doorway somehow thinking that would slow down the deterioriating function of my front door. I share this somewhat embarrassing story of inaction and delusion to highlight a phenomenon I call, “The Toleration Cycle.” And I know I am NOT the only person on the planet to fall into this spiral of settling for less than what you want, deserve or need.
Great work isn’t typically something that a single individual can do alone. More likely great work that can change a community or a business happens because of people working together. In a complex world, it’s more imperative than ever before that we learn how to build strong relationships where you can draw from the strength, ingenuity and resilience of your team.
Over 25 years ago, I was a senior policy advisor in the Ontario public service working on child care and welfare reform. That’s when I first noticed how relatively easy it was to get people into a room to meet, discuss ideas, come up with strategies and make some decisions. But getting policies, regulations, opinions, culture and legislation to change was a completely different story! Good intentions and clarity easily dissipated and were forgotten once everyone got back to their desks and existing priorities and problems consumed their focus and time. Fast forward to today. The challenge of turning ideas into action still hits roadblocks, u-turns and organizational gridlock.
Organizations of all scale and in all industries are facing unprecedented levels of change and challenge. It’s important to come up with a game plan. Whether it’s a strategic planning offsite, or a big board meeting, these important gatherings is where decisions get debated and made, and priorities set. When you’re in the “room where it happens, ”there’s often a sense of excitement, momentum and satisfaction when you see that you and fellow colleagues are in alignment.
Every taxi driver I’ve used in the past year is glued to the GPS chirping out directions for getting me to my destination. But standardized, automated, rote directions often fall woefully short. On my last taxi ride, the GPS and I practically had an ongoing debate, as I countermanded the ludicrous directions it was giving that would have put us in construction gridlock and instead directed my driver based on my experience with the traffic patterns and options of my own neighbourhood.
It’s hard to be a weirdo, a maverick, or an outlier, especially in the workplace. Humans are wired in some pretty ancient ways to find safety and security in the tribe. It explains a lot of the cultural programming out there that teaches us it’s better to “fit in” or not “stand out” in the crowd. Showing up to a meeting with a blank sketch pad and a pencil case of colored markers might be considered a bit odd in a boardroom used to PowerPoint presentations, note-taking by laptop or Ipad, and mobile phones.
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