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Tuesday, 18 January 2011 12:11

Gain Credibility by Being Prepared

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Kupe_Jan_18_BlogI received a tweet from a buddy during the first week of the year saying he had 8 meetings scheduled in one day.  Seeing as though there are approx. 8 hrs in the work day, those meetings consume his entire day. Hopefully the meeting rooms were close because there is no time between meetings to get from one to the other.  Unless he can fly like Superman, he was leaving early for some and getting to others late.  I should have warned him to not drink coffee that day.  No time for breaks.  Having a full day of meetings may be rare, but having multiple meetings in a day and back to back meetings is not.  Some people accept this as part of doing business in today's work environment.  I say you should avoid it at all costs.  Here's why...you need to be prepared.

How many of you run into meetings and say "why are we here again?"  Hopefully it is not a meeting you are leading.  As a business analyst a way to gain credibility is being prepared for every meeting you lead or attend.  Many of you know I am a trained Improv actor. My improv troupe was always asked if the dialogue was scripted. Even though we explained there were no scripts for the show, audience members just couldn't believe it.  They felt the dialogue on stage was just too smooth for their not to be scripts.  How did we do this?  We practiced many hours to be prepared for any situation on stage.  Our performances were 2 hours long and we practiced 6-8 hours every week.  Look at other professions, like professional (US) football.  They practice all week to play for 60 minutes.  So why do we feel it is OK to run into a meeting and ask "why are we here?"  I would have been booed off stage, football players would be out of a job. 

I know this is hard in today's environment, but do what you can to be ready.  Here is an old tip that I learned. I break it out if I feel the back to back meetings are just wearing me down.  Start your meetings on the half hour or quarter hour.  You will instantly install cushion between meetings.  I would say 99% of people schedule meetings on the hour, 9am, 10am, etc.  By starting yours at 10:15am you'll have 15 minutes after your 9-10 meeting and potentially 45 minutes before your 12pm meeting(hopefully they are serving lunch).  That gives you time to prepare for your upcoming meetings. 

I have been in too many meetings were half of the meeting is spent waiting for people to arrive, setting up the projector and helping everyone understand why we are there.  The goals of the meeting are not accomplished therefore another meeting is scheduled to finish up.  This behavior just adds more meetings meaning less time to prepare and the cycle continues. 

Make sure you are prepared for every meeting you attend and do what you can to provide the necessary information so others attending your meetings are prepared.  This behavior will be received well and leading by example, one at a time you can change others behaviors. 

Now stop reading this blog post and get ready for your meeting!

Kupe

Don't forget to leave your comments below.

Read 3186 times Last modified on Tuesday, 27 March 2012 13:46
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Kupe Kupersmith

Kupe Kupersmith, President, B2T Training, possesses over 14 years of experience in the business analysis profession. He has served as the lead Business Analyst and Project Manager on projects in the utility, television and sports management and marketing industries. Kupe is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) through the IIBA. Kupe is a trained improvisational actor and performed for years in clubs around Atlanta.  He is a big believer that we can work and learn while having fun. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone!

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Comments  

 
0 # Søren Hjelholt 2011-01-18 16:59
Just a note on your football metaphor. The players, compareable to your meeting participants, are usually off on monday, and in organised practise for 2 - 3 hours. Besides that they prepare individually, watching game tapes, in the exercise room etc. Some players, e.g. quarterbacks use more time that other players preparing. But the coaches, compareable to the meeting leader, start their work on monday morning, and are in the team facilities before the players, and leaver long after. Maybe to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep before they get back to work. So even in the world of sports, the coaches aka. the analysts use much more time preparing, than the players actually executing the game...
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0 # Kupe Kupersmith 2011-01-18 22:31
Good point @hjelholt. That is the reason I decided to not chase my dream of being a head football coach!
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0 # Aaron Whittenberger 2011-02-01 02:56
I agree with you Kupe! One of the fastest ways to loose credibility is to not be prepared for meetings, especially the ones that you are suppose to run. I agree that meetings often get extended to finish up, but the first 15 minutes or 1/2 hour of each meeting is used to "catch up" on what we did last week or yesterday. If everybody is prepared for the meeting there should be no need for "catch up". I just got out of a standing weekly meeting, but we lost our usual conference room to another meeting. So we were scheduled into a smaller room. Three of us had to stand during the entire meeting because there weren't enough chairs. Part of being prepared as a leader is making sure that all the equipment and supplies needed are in the room before the meeting starts. If you need a whiteboard or projector, make sure it is there and ready to go. Another great way to loose credibility is to not practice what you preach. I use to work for a company where I reported to the CFO. He was always preaching Lombardi time; you should be to a meeting five minutes early and never late because all you're doing is wasting everybody elses time that got to the meeting on time. He even preached this at meetings. One of the ladies asked him what if I am on the phone with one of our agents in the field or a customer. His answer was "hang up the phone and get to the meeting". One day I was running past the CFO's office, as usual not on Lombardi time, on my way to a meeting and there he is in his office on the phone. He walked into the meeting ten minutes late with a big smile on his face. Of course, nobody said anything to him, but you could just feel that day that he lost a lot of respect from those in the meeting, he certainly lost mine. When you're in a position of authority, practice what you preach!
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0 # Jakub Plachecki 2011-02-24 03:34
If I may... 1. You did not really mention, that the 8 meetings Your buddy had scheduled in that day lasted 1 hour on average, thus it might had been not that hard to attend to them all well prepared and even not to get tired at all ;-) 2. As of "why are we here again?" - in my opinion this question should be asked in the beginning of almost every meeting. Not to mention that it is a good practice to have e.g. a flipchart and a marker at hand, and write the answer right when it comes out (and it is better if we are not the ones answering it - the person who speaks it aloud may be of some help if the main topic goes away). Then one can put the flipchart in a place where it is visible to all who attend, and while moderating the meeting, trying to keep close to it, to be able to for example knock at it (or make them focus at it just for a sec in other ways) if people forget what they were supposed to discuss. These are just my 5 cents to add to the flavor ;-) There is in fact plenty of moderation techniques, and the topic itself is not to be forgotten by any BA, especially those of us who would like to develop some skills to help themselves and all other participants of countless meetings to cooperate effectively. B est regards, Jakub
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0 # Kupe Kupersmith 2011-02-24 04:52
@Jakub, You absolutely may. Thanks for chiming in. On point number 1, I'm not sure it was a full 8 hours of meetings. The fact still remains...8 meetings in one day is still a lot! As for the "why are we here again?" I agree with you that should be refreshed at the beginning of the meeting. I was referring to the person that just accepted the invite and took zero time to prepare for the meeting. Too many people just show up to meetings without doing any homework. The key here as you said, is to make sure BAs don't forget and always try to be prepared.
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0 # Jakub Plachecki 2011-02-24 07:21
@Kupe As for 1, I was just messing with You concluding that since there were 8 meetings it took Your buddy 8 hours or so :-) twisted sense of humour, isn't it? As for THE question - my comment referred to a bit different situation - I can't imagine myself taking zero time to prepare for a meeting it's so obvious. Nevertheless obvious things are even more worthy to underline, just to make sure they are not being forgotten (coz they are so obvious:-)) An yways, I'm looking forward to Your next articles / thoughts and such.
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