Chapter 9 | Follow Up Afterward
Chapter 9 Part 1: The Meeting After The Meeting
💡Wait and talk to people afterward to debrief and gain insights that weren’t apparent at the time.
Review some of the things you’ll need to do immediately after the meeting :
•Stick around to chat with people
•Follow up quickly with your notes.
•Apply filters and remove the fluff
•Seek out individuals who can help you.
•Make decisions where there is ambiguity.
Chapter 9 Part 2: Follow-Up Fast
💡Follow up with the team before anyone has a chance to forget and disagree with the decisions they’ve already made.
There are three values of doing follow—up fast after meeting.
- A quick follow-up demonstrates that the meeting was a priority to you, so much so that you’re not going to do anything else until it’s settled.
2. It values the participants because it shows that you’re doing the legwork, keeping them informed, and making the best use of their time.
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3. It shows that you’re listening
Chapter 9 Part 3: Apply Filters
💡Another poster meeting strategy is to use your best judgment to filter out all the unnecessary information that isn’t worth repeating to the entire team.
To help you understand what information you can safely filter, you need to quickly assess several things about the person providing the feedback:
•What are this person’s intentions?
•Do other people agree or disagree?
•Is this person influential or not?
•Is this person likely to bring it up again in the next meeting?
💡You must learn to filter out all the cruft that can cloud your decision-making. Use your skills in listening and relational discernment to remove the stuff you don’t need, keep the most important things, and follow up quickly with what’s being done.
Chapter 9 Part 4: Seek Out Individuals
💡The purpose of one-on-ones is to give people an opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions outside the constraints of a meeting where other people are listening. Build relationships that can help you get what you need in the future.
💡Be intentional about seeking people out and finding ways to connect with them more regularly to keep them in the loop so they have the opportunity to help influence your work.
Chapter 9 Part 5: Do Something Even If It’s Wrong
💡It’s better to do something (even if it’s wrong) and give your team the opportunity to speak out for or against your choice rather than deal with stale decisions and a stagnant design process. Sometimes you just need to decide and tell everyone else what you’re going to do to get them to speak up.
Mcdonald’s theory, proposed by Jon Bell.
If everyone is indecisive about suggesting where to eat to decide for the group, suggest eating at McDonald’s. and suddenly everyone will have an opinion about where to go.
Often the productive parts of the meeting happen after everyone has left the conference room. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to finalize decisions and get buy-in from people after the fact.
