Cut to the Chase…However

Whenever I attend or lead a seminar, I notice that participants love lists. When they hear that there are five ways, or three ways, or seven ways to do something, they’re leaning forward and ready to write. Never mind what the topic is or what the ways are, it must be worth writing if you can count them.

Remember that training meeting when you were about to drift off and the speaker said…  “Ladies and gentlemen, there are the five ways that a perlumberator can be squaligized.”

You were suddenly wide awake and filled with anticipation. Your pen was poised. A LIST! FIVE WAYS!!” Who cares what a perlumberator is or if it can be squaligized. That’s not important. What is? There are 5 ways to do it.

Why the big reaction? Who knows? Maybe a list satisfies your need to:

Justify: If I walk out of here with a list, I didn’t waste my time.

Quantify: A list of five things; add one cup of coffee and three trips to the water cooler; subtract 2 trips to the restroom; divide by 2 hours of sitting…

Cut to the chase: Finally. Something. Now I can get back to my real job.

Whether you’re at a workshop or the workplace, the last thing you want to do is listen to folks who have nothing better to do, bother you with aimless blather.

Your boss tells you to produce more and spend less, in half the time it took you to do less with more people. If anyone, your boss included, has a message for you, you want it in a three bullet memo of twenty-five words or less. And that’s not going to happen.

You’d probably like to tell those walking talkers to take a hike, but that might put a crimp in your career. Instead, what if you ever so discreetly provided them with a few lists of your own?

Discreet List #1: To Those Who Talk Me Walleyed (And Don’t Seem to Know It)

1. It’s not unreasonable that you want to talk to me; it’s that you don’t choose a good time to do it.
2. It’s not that I don’t value the importance of your words, it’s that you don’t appear to value the importance of my time.
3. It’s not that I don’t value what you’re saying, it’s that you take too long saying it.

Discreet List #2: Here’s What I Would Like You To Do About It:

1. Call me and arrange a meeting time and length that will work for both of us.|
2. Clarify and communicate your objectives in advance of our meeting.

Stay focused so that we can successfully complete our agenda.

***

Now that I have soapboxed for the make it snappy bunch, there are a few howevers I’d like to add:

Yes, some people talk more than you may feel is necessary. They probably haven’t thought through what they want to say, and think aloud until it sounds right and makes sense. They’re not aware of your impatience and you’re not aware of their motivation.

Don’t tune them out. Sometimes your wordy colleagues are addressing business issues that directly impact you. Conceptual conversation can sound abstract and you may not think you have time or reason to be interested. You need to be.

When you ask these people to cut to the chase, the message is, “You’re boring me.” The problem isn’t that they are talking too much, the problem is that you are listening too little. If you want to be promoted from pushing pencils to leading people, that kind of impatience can be career limiting.

Yes, it is frustrating to be called into bun numbing meetings when you don’t believe that you have anything to contribute. It is agitating to grudgingly sit there, cataloguing all that you could be doing if only you were somewhere else. But when you don’t participate, either in silent protest or because you assume your opinion doesn’t count, you’re making a professional mistake.

As your company flattens, more will be expected of you, not only in time and focus, but in perspective. You won’t be invited to give your opinion, you will be expected to. You won’t be taught strategic thinking, you’ll be expected to think strategically.

In your haste to cut to the chase be sure that the goal you’re after is the same one your leadership is moving toward.