COPEL COMMUNICATIONS
  • Home
  • Consultants
    • Services
    • Types of clients served
    • How you can profit
    • Privacy and pricing
    • About
    • Testimonials
  • Creatives
    • Services
    • Clients served
    • Portfolio
    • Pricing
    • About
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact

blog

Read our best-practice tips and advice

How to look smarter in a meeting

5/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s the same way to be smarter
 
There’s a great line in the movie Swimming With Sharks in which Kevin Spacey’s character rudely tells his newbie assistant: “Shut up. Listen. Learn.”
 
Okay, this blog post is over. See ya!
 
The original title of this article was “How to shut up during a creative meeting.” But the points we’ll cover here work for a lot more than creative meetings. And the advice we’ll dole out is about more than, well, shutting up.
 
So let’s talk about 1) where this information applies, and 2) what you can accomplish when you use it prudently.
 
Who do you want to impress?
 
That question implies that this is all about making yourself look good. In a way, it is. But it’s much more about doing a better job in the eyes of others. If you’re in a creative meeting, you certainly want to appear creative. (There’s often a tacit competition in these meetings: “Who can come up with the best idea?”) If you’re in a client meeting, you certainly want to appear not just responsive, but proactive. Prescient. This will endue the client with confidence in your ability to anticipate their needs. And if you’re in a team huddle, you want your peers to respect your thoughts, as well as your ability to both lead and follow.
 
Proactive listening
 
There’s a technique called “active listening,” which is commonly employed in counseling and conflict resolution. According to Wikipedia, it “requires that the listener fully concentrate, understand, respond, and then remember what is being said.”
 
That’s fine. But we want to take this a step further. It’s not just a matter of listening. It’s a matter of eliciting. Of culling. Of, very gently, teasing out information from the others in the room, which you can then put to better use than everyone else.
 
This, of course, predicates upon the dynamic of the meeting and the personalities of its participants. Sometimes you’ll luck out—in a way that most people wouldn’t consider terribly lucky. That is, you may be in a meeting, say with a creative team or a new client, and the Key Person You Want To Impress is one of these loquacious sorts who just spouts on and on for a seeming eternity before running out of steam.
 
If that’s the case, take notes. And remember: this person will run out of steam. Eventually. So take advantage of the fire-hose of info. You needn’t poke, prod, or probe.
 
Conversely, if the KPYWTI (!) is reticent, you’ll need to work. Gently. Little open-ended prods such as “Really? How so?” can net you infinitely more, and better, information than detailed show-off questions.
 
Remember: You’re saving your thunder.
 
Circle around
 
The beauty of being a proactive listener in a meeting is that you have the ability to spot themes in the conversation that the speakers themselves don’t, since they’re in the verbal smoke of battle. What is it that connects what Speaker A is talking about to the seemingly-disparate stuff being discussed by Speaker B?
 
This is not easy. We never said it was.
 
It requires multi-tasking. You’re 1) listening, 2) taking notes, 3) looking for common themes, threads, and nexuses among the topics being batted about. And you’ll score bonus points (in a minute) for acting like it’s no big deal. Don’t sit there and sweat through this exercise. You’ll call attention to yourself, distract the meeting, and rob yourself of your pending thunder.
 
Don’t rush it
 
Don’t expect these themes to jump out at you. Or to come at you early. You may sit for 30 minutes of an hour-long meeting not saying much of anything. It may feel risky, but it’s okay. The point is to not speak up until you’ve either got a good question to ask or an interesting observation to make.
 
We were once in a meeting of electronic engineers (a new client company), discussing a particularly thorny issue with B2B applications. A theme arose among the different engineers: There seemed to be competing sources of computing power in the system being discussed. So after a long session of shooting back and forth, the engineers sat there wearily.
 
We raised a hand and asked: “Couldn’t you just borrow some processing cycles from the ECU?”
 
It was a decidedly geeky question. From a decided non-engineer. But all of the conversation had seemed to be dancing around such a question, so we posed it. It was the first that we had even spoken up in this big meeting of maybe ten people.
 
The engineers blinked. “Who are you??” they asked.
 
It was a very nice moment. They got to discussing the elusive ECU and its elusive processing cycles, and we were happy to have catalyzed that new conversation and the ideas it spawned; later, during the lunch break, one of the engineers asked us: “Are you an engineer?” It was flattering.
 
Precipitate
 
Years ago, we were backstage after a concert given by a world-famous pianist; we were there because our friend, a musical genius, got us there. And he used this same technique with stunning effect. All of the wealthy patrons of the arts were fawning over the pianist, bending over backward to ask lengthy and impressive-sounding questions, trying desperately to ingratiate themselves with him. The pianist, to his credit, was charming.
 
Then my friend posed his question. It was something deceptively simple-sounding, like “Why did you play down the second movement?”
 
The pianist, still in his polite-host mode, started to answer. When—and you could see it on his face—the depth and insight of our friend’s question washed over him. He just lit up in a smile. And he was the happiest pianist you ever saw, spouting about his technique, and different composers, and the choices he made in that performance and others. The other patrons were left in the social dust.
 
When we left, the pianist gave our friend a special thank-you and handshake. He even gave us a special thank-you and handshake, since our friend’s brilliance had haloed over to us, too.
 
So it can be done. It’s not easy. But making it look easy is half the fun. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Latest tips

    Check out the latest tips and best-practice advice.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All
    Accounting
    Advertising
    Blogs
    Brainstorming
    Brevity
    Brochures
    Business Development
    Business Expenses
    Business Gifts
    Character Tags
    Color
    Consultants
    Copywriting
    Counterintuitive Tips
    Creative Burnout
    Creatives
    Deadlines
    Direct Mail
    Direct Response
    Discounts
    Eblasts
    Editing
    Education
    Email
    Expenses
    Fonts
    Ghost Writing
    Ghost-writing
    Graphic Design
    Halloween
    Holidays
    Infographics
    Inspiration
    Interview
    Jingles
    Layouts
    Lesson Learned
    Mailing
    Marcom
    Marketing
    Measuring Success
    Media Mix
    Meetings
    Messaging
    Nature
    Outtakes
    Pillar Pages
    PowerPoint
    PR
    Presentations
    Press Releases
    Pricing
    Productivity
    Project Management
    Proposal Development
    RFP
    Sales
    SEO
    Small Talk
    Social Media
    Social Tricks
    Stock Images
    Stock Photos
    Storytelling
    Stress
    Tagline
    Taxes
    Testimonials
    Thanksgiving
    Thought Leadership
    Top Tips
    Typesetting
    Vacation
    Video
    Websites
    White Papers
    Writing

© 2025 Copel Communications. All rights reserved.
Privacy policy.
Photos from figlioDiOrfeo♥, torbakhopper, RLHyde, hotrodnz, pijpers662, Skley, Tambako the Jaguar, Miranda Mylne, imagea.org, chaya760, tanakawho, MVO Nederland, Scott Markowitz Photography, sinclair.sharon28, justgrimes, flazingo_photos, Serge Saint, Clint Mason, Highways England, ... jc ..., michelle.boesch, startup_mena, efradera, tec_estromberg, marcoverch, verchmarco, jeffdjevdet, matthewspiel, .v1ctor Casale., One Way Stock, 드림포유, Bill David Brooks, cogdogblog, SkyFireXII, Aja M Johnson, Javier A Bedrina, Adam Court, ffaalumni, Nicolas Alejandro Street Photography, DafneCholet, GotCredit, operation_janet, The Marmot, classic_film, crdotx, urban_data, torbakhopper, attivitoso, SqueakyMarmot, Visual Content, brian.gratwicke, Cloud Income, Limelight Leads, Infomastern, wuestenigel, 1DayReview, nodstrum, kosmolaut, wuestenigel, Tambako the Jaguar, wuestenigel, Gamma Man, poptech, Brett Jordan, wuestenigel, Gunn Shots !, Darron Birgenheier, Gavin Llewellyn, Dyroc, State Farm, willbuckner, romanboed, Joe The Goat Farmer, thetaxhaven, quinn.anya, RaHuL Rodriguez, Rawpixel Ltd, One Way Stock, Seth1492, Free for Commercial Use, Tambako the Jaguar, Skley, Free For Commercial Use (FFC), Christoph Scholz, spinster cardigan, anokarina, homegets.com, Timothy Neesam (GumshoePhotos), Sebastiaan ter Burg, Free For Commercial Use (FFC), Sebastiaan ter Burg, Images_of_Money, Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com), Thad Zajdowicz, professor.jruiz, Wishbook, Free For Commercial Use (FFC), wuestenigel, boellstiftung, tnilsson.london, wuestenigel, opensourceway, Magdalena Roeseler, the great 8, wuestenigel, wuestenigel, quinet, congresinbeeld, Sarah G..., Rosmarie Voegtli, HloomHloom, zeevveez, Noirathsi's Eye, paola.bazurto4, torbakhopper, wuestenigel, VisitLakeland, Epiphonication, Limelight Leads, kstepanoff, focusonmore.com, Wine Dharma, citirecruitment, BrownGuacamole, rawpixel.com, Macrophy (Grant Beedie), MathGoulet, VintageReveries, Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel, fabhouess, S@ndrine Néel, ryangattis, spline_splinson, aqua.mech, InstructionalSolutions, DonkeyHotey, Drcalmighty, Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel, torbakhopper, Joe The Goat Farmer, miguel.discart, anitakhart, toptenalternatives, wuestenigel, US Mission Geneva, Homedust, Sebastiaan ter Burg, ccnull.de Bilddatenbank, MarkDoliner, Emma VI, Serfs UP ! Roger Sayles, HeinzDS, homegets.com, Dingbatter, MorseInteractive, aqua.mech, Informedmag, aaronrhawkins, rey perezoso, corno.fulgur75, instaSHINOBI, nicospecial, wuestenigel, Marc_Smith, wuestenigel, CreditDebitPro, The Brian Solis, Tim Evanson, torbakhopper, Limelight Leads, JD Hancock, John Brighenti, garlandcannon, Casey Hugelfink, toptenalternatives, wuestenigel, Bestpicko, fabola, ShebleyCL, Christoph Scholz, mikecogh
  • Home
  • Consultants
    • Services
    • Types of clients served
    • How you can profit
    • Privacy and pricing
    • About
    • Testimonials
  • Creatives
    • Services
    • Clients served
    • Portfolio
    • Pricing
    • About
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact