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Transcript
Have you ever been in a meeting where you didn’t agree with what someone said, but you didn’t say anything? Or you didn’t understand something, but you didn’t say anything? Or you thought that you agreed and you understood, but after the meeting the action that your colleagues took was different from what you expected?
This happens.
Why? Well because as human beings we interpret things based on our experiences, our background, and our culture. And the more diverse our experiences, our background, and our culture, the more likely we are to interpret things in different ways.
This leads to what I call “mottainai” in the workplace — a waste in the workplace — because we are not getting the best results, we have inefficiency and stress.
For example, a senior manager — an American gentleman — came to me and he was very frustrated. He said to me, “Helen, I don’t understand it. I tell my team what to do and they come back a week later with something completely different.”
As an American, he was expecting them to ask questions if they didn’t understand what he was saying. But his team was Japanese and maybe they thought, “Oh, we shouldn’t really question our senior colleague” or “We don’t want to show that we don’t understand something” or maybe they just weren’t used to asking questions.
So my recommendation is to ask more questions.
Now how can you do this? Well, first of all listen for things that you don’t understand in a meeting and then question them.
Or if that is too big a step for you as it was for one Japanese gentleman I was coaching recently. He said, “Oh no I understand the benefit, but I’m not comfortable speaking up in a meeting.”
So I said, “Well start off with just asking someone immediately after the meeting.” That’s the first step. Just take those tiny steps out of the comfort zone. So he agreed to do that.
And to help you with questions, I’ve created a list of 25 questions that you can ask in meetings to help you to clear up those misunderstandings so that you don’t have so much “mottainai” of not getting the best results, inefficiency, and stress. What I would say though is take it a little bit at a time.
So the other my daughter — my teenage daughter — suggested that we do a squat challenge. So I did 55 squats all at once. And then I could hardly walk for two days.
So now instead of doing so much at once, I’ve now learned to build up the number of squats that I’m doing a little bit every day. So yesterday I was at 10. Today I’m at 11. And I’m doing okay with it.
In the same way, think of one question that you want to ask in your next meeting. Start a little by little stepping out of your comfort zone.
Good luck!
