

The Screw-Me Scenario - dpritchett
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2009/05/10/the_screwme_scenario.html

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Alex63
If you are presenting to management, learn this lesson. As a consultant, I do
a lot of presentations, and attend a lot of meetings where other people
present. Rands provides the best advice: if someone hits you with a surprise,
acknowledge the concern, admit you don't know the answer, and offer a plan for
coming up with the answer. Sometimes one of the players (and not necessarily
the person who brought it up) will try to leverage the outstanding issue to
delay a decision (or drive the decision the "wrong" way). Knowing in advance
that a "screw-me" may come up, and being prepared to handle it, will help you
deal with this situation. You may be able to get agreement that the issue is
not material to the decision, or you may be able to get a provisional decision
pending an answer to the open question. What you want to avoid is losing
another week while you research, communicate, and reschedule the meeting.

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dpritchett
I've only recently (thanks to Rands) discovered the value of meeting with key
stakeholders prior to meetings to hear their concerns, state my case, and
insure there are no surprises at the formal meeting. Most of my meetings are
becoming quick rubber stamp affairs! Soon I'll either be working on more
complex projects or I'll be able to get things done without having formal
meetings at all.

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gte910h
Many to many meetings are often a huge waste of time and a poor way to get
things done. The fact you're going retail to the individual people also gives
you a LOT more influence than you would in the large meeting.

It seems like more work, but due to its high levels of relative effectiveness,
it is so much less work because it works so much more often.

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anthonyb
It's things like this that make me remember why I only work in smaller
businesses these days. Ah, no politics, other than the usual wrangling with
clients.

