The Power of Ideas. . .

 

The end is nigh!  The autumn semester/term approaches.  And while we still have almost two months of summer left according to the calendar, "Summer is over and gone," as the crickets sang in Charlotte's Web.  At least for those of us who head back to the classroom in less than a month.  

In advance of a meeting with my program director late Monday morning, I spent about 40 minutes total during the weekend to jot down several ideas about planned workshops and related activities for the coming 2024-2025 academic year.  At an opportune moment, I mentioned "I have a few ideas," and opened my leather portfolio.  

My director was highly receptive to almost everything I suggested, and we had a very productive planning session for just over 90 minutes.  Just about everything I sketched out on Sunday aligns with his own ideas.  It's nice when meetings go that well, and two related things occur to me in hindsight.

One, it pays to exercise forethought, take, and demonstrate initiative.  Even if people across the table do not buy into everything one might propose hook, line, and sinker, they'll appreciate efforts to engage, start a discussion, make suggestions, and move things along toward a concrete goal.  It's just one of many ways we can take charge of our lives and activities instead of waiting for things to be assigned to us by others.  Not always the easy path, but certainly more productive in the longer term.

Two, there is considerable benefit in making small talk before getting down to business, and we spent almost half an hour talking about the summer, our respective families, his recent promotion to program director, my approaching possible big promotion, etc., etc.  This is a point made at different times during my formative years by both my maternal grandfather and father.  

Both executives in different industries by the end of their careers, each had his respective start in sales where the gift of gab, when done right, establishes connection, credibility, and builds trust.  At least when done well.  It's not something I really thought about before the drive home today, or for which I thought I had any aptitude.  And maybe I don't really.  Today might just have been a good day.  

Still, my suspicion is that small talk greases the wheels when it comes to selling one's ideas as father and grandfather maintained and tried to convey.  Kind of neat to have that realization after so many years.  I'd like to think both men would be pleased to know their advice eventually came in handy, albeit unwittingly, decades after they shared it with the very young me.

Returning to the point at hand, most of us tend to dread work-related meetings, seeing them as mind-numbing wastes of time with weak coffee, cheap donuts, and stale cookie pops or bagel bits catered as some kind of weird incentive to attend.  But maybe a way to change that is to prepare ahead of time and go in with a few ideas to float to everyone else around the table.  If nothing else, the resulting discussion is more interesting than sitting there glancing at your iPhone and hoping no one notices you, or enlists you in some less than inspiring pursuit.  And who knows?  Those ideas just might open interesting new doors of opportunity for you and those around you.  Think about it.

As the nightly Pennsylvania Daily Number drawing used to intone every evening at 7pm between The Nightly News and  The People's Court, "You've gotta play to win!" 

-- Heinz-Ulrich