So I know that the first reaction most people will have reading the title of this post is, “Pot. Kettle. Black.”
And I get it, I can talk. A lot.
But the thing is, in actual client meetings, I’m much more surgical.
There’s a couple of reasons for this.
The first is I am genuinely interested to hear what others in the room think.
The second is it allows me the time to truly consider my point of view in consideration of all we’ve heard.
And thirdly, I can ensure my POV has the opportunity to be shaped by others perspectives that I may not have considered.
However there are 2 occasions where I don’t follow these rules.
The first is when the room requires some sort of ignition to commence debate.
I know we live in times where everyone seems to have a point of view on everything, but there are occasions when silence happens and when it does, my role is to kick things off so a topic finds its natural rhythm and momentum with the rest of the attendees.
The other time I enter the fray earlier is when we have the self-appointed expert.
Now as I’ve said many times, I’m a huge fan of ‘intelligent naivety’ … people who experience/situation affords them a unique perspective on a subject matter, despite not being employed or trained in it.
For example, years ago when I was working with Dreamworks to define what ‘entertainment’ was, one of the people we invited who had a fascinating perspective, was a mother of 8 kids who regarded anything that kept her kids quiet and still for 15 minutes was the pinnacle of entertainment.
But I’m not talking about these folk.
The beauty of them is they tend to speak very much from their personal perspective, situation and experience and never try to claim their opinion is valid for a different set of circumstances.
I’m talking about the people who don’t understand that their perspective is simply their perspective rather than something that is universal and can be transported to others.
The millionaires who talk about what it’s like to be a kid in a low income home, based on what their kid likes.
The ad folk who talk about what life is like in the suburbs because they read an article about it in The Guardian.
The white guys who talk about understanding what it’s like to be an African American because they aren’t racists.
The men who tell women what they want because “my Mum was one”.
The businessmen who talk about what an ad should look like because they know business.
And while those people absolutely have a right to an opinion, they need to be reminded it’s just that – an opinion, not a fact – because if you let them talk incessantly, they don’t just have the ability to derail a meeting, they have the ability to get otherwise sane people to agree to decisions that are utterly car-crash. Remember Pepsi?