I reserve my right to be dumb because no one person should have all the answers. Put your ego aside and ask the question.
It’s important if you don’t understand or you don’t have the answer you can ask the question. Chances are you are not the only person in the room struggling to understand what’s going on.
The trick is, the culture of the organisation will determine if you ask the question.
Many years ago I was asked to a meeting I was recognised as an expert in my field, I had vast experience so I was invited. Most of the people in the room didn’t know me, they were a mixture of 3rd party stakeholders and project managers.
The air of importance in the room struck me so much so that I felt uneasy.
The meeting started and there was a structured agenda with updates on the project, there was challenges about the scope, baselines and items were to be fast tracked and there was mention of forward passes and waterfalls and deliverables.
I listened intently really listened as questions were asked people would say they would touch base offline and come back by close of play so it could be taken to the next level.
Others spoke about items being on their radar but as they peeled back the onion.. etc etc and as they went on they were interrupted by project manager who decided we couldn’t boil the ocean and we needed to be all singing from the same hymesheet.
I was in a parellel universe at that time I could see the issues and as I asked for an opinion on an item it was decided that would cause scope creep so it would be descoped from the project.
Whilst there was talk about critical paths along a road map which included milestones it would all be updated in the deck for the next meeting.
Waterfalls, boiling the ocean and thinking outside the box, slide decks and understanding who was holding the pen were all lessons learned.
Meetings would never be the same.
If you don’t understand ask the question, I reserve my right to be dumb.
