The Outstanding Business Analysis Moment in America Goes to OBAMA!
This year the O.B.A.M.A. award goes to the man himself, for his live demonstration of meeting management soft skills for over seven hours, on television! This is NOT POLITICAL – it is just an observation that President Obama is practicing these skills in the face of a very chaotic stakeholder environment.
So, what skills?
How about K.I.S.S.? Obama presented four problem issues, to be discussed, each quite easy to understand.
How about facilitation with detachment? He focused on the problems, did all he could to avoid the personalities, while constantly returning the focus to the issues at hand.
How about managing unproductive contributors? Every meeting has its baggage in terms of folks who simply won’t participate in the agenda, are not interested in the problems to be solved, and use the meeting to grind their own axes. Next time this happens to you, remember Obama, and his kind rebukes (Senator McCain, the election is over!).
How about preserving stakeholder interests? Even as strong differences of opinion deadlocked the conversation, Obama kept reminding the participants that real people were being affected by the paralysis. The imaginary people that are against government regulation of healthcare DID appear on Fox News – like the senior citizen who ranted against Obama’s plan, from her Medicare paid nursing home bedroom.
By letting the issues contrast against the personalities and private agendas, Obama did NOT win over the objectors to the “project” – they remain determined to keep the status quo. What he did accomplish was to create a forum where the undecided can try to weigh the issues of problem solving against ideology, so at least they know what they are deciding. Helping stakeholders decide is often as good as it gets for a BA.
Rather than dwell on the negative, I ask my kind readers to send me THEIR examples of an Outstanding B.A. Moment in America – we are seeking a right wing nominee, for a fair and balanced presentation!
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