The story of Mr Indecisive

So we have a problem. What do we do?

1. Send a long email to clarify and check (and counter check)
2. WhatsApp
3. Round everyone up for a quick 5 minute huddle
4. Keep quiet, it will pass eventually

Take one more step back. Let's take a look at what happens when Mr Indesivive faces this issue. Mr Indecisive needs to be aware of the problem in the first place. Does Mr Indecisive have the situational awareness? Don't try to assume that everyone has the same awareness as Mr Indecisive. Does Mr Indecisive care and is Mr Indecisive aware? Mr Indecisive not reacting does not mean that he does not care. Maybe Mr Indecisive is still digesting (some people take time), maybe Mr Indecisive is brainstorming in his minds maybe Mr Indecisive has other more urgent decisions to make. While these seem like excuses for the seemingly indecisive and an unaware personality, these traits are unfortunately common in modern leadership. There are many Mr Indecisives in the workplace. Ok, so let's assume that we have got over that. How to solve a problem? Talk it out.

Talking it out does not mean talking for an hour or two. In fact, having long meetings is counter productive and unable to achieve much beyond the first hour. When Mr Indecisive is in a meeting, you know that no one is really interested to go on any further. The silence is deafening. Now in the Zoom era, it is easier to cope. I suppose when Mr Indecisive is chairing a meeting, members of the meeting can either turn off the video or multi task. The droning chair is probably just like white noise. That is a problem as well. I had previously wrote about losing the team. This is an example of losing the team. If Mr Indecisive calls for a meeting and asks for feedback and no one responds, then probably, Mr Indecisive should not be calling for a meeting in the first place.

We should not be measured by the number of meetings we attend, nor should we be measured by how well we fill up our calendars and look busy. This is wrong. Many times, I have questioned, why am I going for this meeting? What is my value add to the meeting? Sometimes we have meetings for information dissemination. Surely there are better ways to do that. Email? A bulletin board? Meetings should be used to clarify the doubts.

There are also meetings where the discussion points resemble a brain storming session. Discussions gets off the rails and drifts to another realm. Question here is, is this what was the intention in the first place? And if the meeting was just for an hour, it is far too short for a brain storm. A brainstorm session is totally different from a meeting. There are ways to conduct a brainstorm session and these are mechanistically different from a meeting.

Mr Indecisive has to understand the following facts. A meeting has an agenda and typically action to be followed. The agenda is something which has to be planned carefully before each meeting, giving each meeting item sufficient time to be digested by members of the meeting. Purpose of the meeting has to be clear, actions recorded. There must be a purpose for each member of the meeting to be in the meeting. Take for example, an executive with a monthly rate of 16k. This breaks down to a weekly rate of 4k and 800 per day. Assuming an 8 hour working day, that is 100 dollars per hour. If we have a meeting with 20 such executives and the meeting lasts 3 hours, that is 6k per meeting. What then is the return on investment on this meeting (ROI)? Therefore if you think carefully, before you call for a meeting, you are actually saving a lot of money. If we drone, groan, and moan in a meeting. This is hardly the best use of resources and time. Hence the saying, you are wasting my time and your time.

A good friend of Mr Indecisive, Mr Details is also everpresent in the office. When Mr Details drives a car, he needs to know how the engine works. Mr Details seeks to understand the principle behind an induction heater to use the induction heater. What happens when Mr Details is tasked to accomplish bigger things, to plan for greater things, to show the way and chart the path. How will Mr Details handle this? More in my next post.

I have some thoughts on why a lot of information is asked of us these days. First and foremost, subjects are getting more complex and less easily understood. Mr Details needs to ask for the information needs to equip himself to be able to tackle the problem in the first place. Second, unable to make decisions with in a half-blind mode. Some characters require the full picture before they can decide (Mr Cautious). Give them half a picture and they will want to keep asking for the full picture. Telling them to make a decision with half a picture is like telling them to jump off a plane without a parachute. They fear that. They are paralyzed by such situations. Third is, the fear of making mistakes. People like Mr Indecisive are really afraid of making mistakes and worse, to answer for it and have his name attributed to a failed decision. I find this particularly prevalent these days. There is thinking and overthinking when there is a problem. Should I put my left or right foot forward? Help Mr Indecisive make up his mind! Baby steps, take it easy, one day, you will get there.

Now, there are all sorts of characters in our office. Mr Indecisive describes everyone and yet no one. If you think that the traits that I just described fits a certain person you know, please let them know and help them through their growth journey. If you think the traits that I just described describes you to the T, big congratulations to you! This is indicative of a state of high self awareness and can only be beneficial to you as you embark on a journey to improve yourself. You and your colleagues will benefit from this. If you think the traits that I described is not relevant to you or that you do not suffer from this, then I urge you to think through again or speak to someone who is close to you. Everyone, inadvertently, will demonstrate these traits. That's right. No one is spared from this. Now dig deep and find that little Mr Indecisive in you and try again.