My coffee was piping hot, hazelnut with a little cream. Cheryl’s meeting was to start in a few minutes. She was determined to turn things around with her team. She was hired as a troubleshooter in Quality Control, but finding the problem and fixing the problem are two different things.
“So today, you said you were going to listen?” I asked.
Cheryl nodded “Yes.”
“What position will you be listening from?”
The question caught Cheryl off-guard. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“The way we see the world is often influenced by our position. In fact, you have listened to your team before, but you were listening from a position of judgment, so you didn’t hear what they had to say.” I stopped to let that sink in. “What position will you be listening from today?” I repeated.
“I guess I will be trying to understand their point of view.”
“Not bad, but not aggressive enough to be effective. What position do you want to be listening from?”
Cheryl was stumped. “Curiosity?” she finally blurted out.
I nodded. “So, when you sit in your meeting today, you will be listening from the position of a curious child?”
Cheryl smiled.
“And curious children always have a lot more fun than stuffy old Quality Control managers,” I said. “And curious children often invent interesting ways to solve problems.”
And when we approach a meeting from a position of curiosity it means your also approach in the meeting with a personal view … “What will these clever people teach me today?”.
Too many times we go to meetings with the solution already in our heads, even before we know what the problem was. Or we believe we are there to “solve the problem”. More often I find that the team know the answer to the problem, they just needed (a) someone to take the time to listen and (b) someone to help then find the solution from their own ideas.
Humility is a great characteristic to take with you when attending these sort of meetings.
Rob,
Thanks for articulating your “position” for listening. Continuous learners are the best teachers.