Asking the Right People

As you are asking these questions, some of the things that you need to keep in mind are: Who are you talking to? As much as I’m not a fan of rank inside an organization, I am a fan of understanding if you have the right people in the room. It sounds similar to “get the right people on the bus”, and if you want to think about this potential project, that’s what you are doing. You want to make sure you’ve got the right people in the room that you’re talking to so that you are not wasting anyone’s time. You don’t want to waste your own time by asking the same questions of six different people in six different meetings, and you also want to make sure that if there are any internal discrepancies on a particular solution, or even what a problem is, it comes out right away. For example, if we talk to someone who is using a particular computer application and that person says, “Hey, I’ve got a problem with the way this functions”, but his or her six other peers don’t have a problem with that, and his or her manager doesn’t, chances are we don’t need to meet with that person because they’re not going to pay to have that changed.

Take notes. For me, this seems pretty obvious, but when I go into meetings with so many different companies, no one is taking notes. When those people reach the next step of the process and wonder, “Oh, where did the notes go? Who’s doing this? Who’s doing that?” Nobody knows what the next step is. Nobody knows exactly what those notes are and with technology today, that’s unacceptable. There’s a great program by Microsoft called OneNote. OneNote, in my opinion, should be used in almost every meeting because you can type, you can draw. It will do audio recordings. It is phenomenal. Ideally, it’s there and you use it to capture the entire discussion.

Outside of the taking notes, pay attention to your body language. Statistically this varies, but you hear anywhere between 50 and 90% of communication is nonverbal. So, while you’re meeting with someone, don’t look beyond them. Don’t have your arms crossed across your chest. Sit back in the chair. Relax. Engage them as a peer. You want to make sure that you are there to learn if you can help them. You don’t have to take the job/project if there’s no opportunity. Keep that in mind.

Comments

About Author