Is Your Mind Open for the Ridiculous?

A few weeks back, some colleagues of mine went on a visit to a customer.    This customer runs many of our existing products.    One of those colleagues and I had been recently discussing how we notify customers of our changes.    I was describing very excitedly sharing my belief that what I had been doing was some cutting edge/forward thinking on this topic. I was trying to paint a vision, and while this person remembered the vision, they did not know that it was *vision* and mentioned it to the customer as fact.  I got an e-mail as the meeting was taking place.   I was dumb founded that this colleague could not differentiate between fact and fiction -- what a ridiculous thought!

Just as I was thinking how ridiculous the idea was, I suddenly thought of a related idea that was not ridiculous at all.    This idea  did not have a huge fact/fiction delta and is something that we could deliver to our customers in fairly short order.    I would never have come up with this idea unless my colleague had not suggested such a "Ridiculous" idea.   Are you ready for ridiculous?  If not, try and move from a "Fixed Mindset" to a "Growth Mindset".

Old Tools, New Rules

My last few posts have been about relatively "old" technology.   Today I add one more -- the telephone, even if we are not using the "phone" in much different way: more teleconferences, iPhone, Bluetooth devices, etc.   

I have had two recent conference calls where it has become painfully obvious that the individuals have forgotten the polite use of the mute function on any device.    While it understandable that a short conference one can be excused for some background noise and a sigh or heavy breathing (yours truly has been guilty while walking up 12 flights of stairs), the most common offense is typing at a keyboard while having the phone close.   I recently attended a meeting where 75 attendees spent 34 minutes trying to get a conference-ed in attendee to mute their phone.  

Here is some simple advice for both Attendees and hosts:

Attendees:

• Desk phone - mute the phone and have visual a indicator of whether or not you are mute.   Better that you have headset.
• Mobile device -- a head set with a speaker is a *must*.   Mute as needed.
• Join the meeting on time, announce yourself.   If you are late, don't announce yourself.

Hosts:

• Start the meeting on time -- announce who is physically present, take a roll call of those conference-ed in.
• Ensure that physically attendees speak so those on the phone can hear.
• Provide a mobile friendly "1 touch dial" i.e. ",,," to pause where a pass code is required.
• If your attendees aren't "mute friendly", make sure you know how to mute them!