Einstein's Mother At Your Meeting

Real Questions for Real Meetings

Bored at meetings?

Here’s a challenge for you. Count the number of questions that are asked around the table. Divide the questions into three categories:

1. The grade six grammar “open probes”, starting with the W’s
2. The questions that end in “yes” or “no” answers
3. And the summary type questions, such as “so what you’re saying is....?”

If you’d like to be even more ambitious, record who asked the question. Did everyone have a turn? Who took over the meeting? How meaningful were the questions in moving the dialogue forward to an end result?

My point is, meetings cost money. A lot of money. Add up the salaries of everyone at the table, the cost of the room, the coffees and lunches, the mileage and even the time it takes to write and distribute agendas and reports. Is this investment worth the result?

If you’re already thinking, “No, it’s a simple waste of time”, then you might consider the role of questions in transforming the essence of your meeting.
At times, the obvious question just needs to be asked. Typically, decision making is based on assumptions. Assumptions can lead to flawed solutions. Questions clarify. A good example is Lois Lane, who never did ask Superman if he knew Clark Kent.

Apparently, Albert Einstein’s mother Pauline asked her little dyslexic genius, “What good questions did you ask today?”. She’s the kind of meeting participant I’d like to have at the next strategic planning event.

Questions, carefully designed, can bring out the best in people. Questions are at the heart of employee engagement: commitment, truth, integrity and innovation. They are the foundation of dialogue, especially when they are aimed at gathering more information.

Try “Tell me about...” as a substitute for “who, what, when, where, how”. Eliminate “why”. Why? People get defensive instantly.

If your organization is considering the cost of coffee as a potential budget item to eliminate, there’s a better solution.

Look to the structure and dynamics of your meetings, specifically how your conversations happen. Who is asking what?

Ask each other what’s important, and better still, what’s most important? The right questions will lead to the right people, making the right decisions, for the right reasons, at the right time. Albert Einstein’s mother seemed to be onto something, didn’t she!

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Maggie Chicoine is a Master Coach, experienced facilitator and professional writer. She can help you to design meetings that are effective, efficient and fun. She guarantees that no one sleeps! Follow Maggie on Twitter @ ideasculptor.

The Tuesday File appears in LakeSuperiorNews.com weekly. Reach her at 1 800 587 1767 or www.theideasculptor.com

Stupid = Smart, Doesn't It?

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine. All Rights Reserved 2008

Who? Me? Stupid?

With the driving forces of the economy and politics at the forefront of our minds, we should be slapping yellow and black dummy stickers on our foreheads. It’s time to admit that we are a little more stupid than we’ve been lead to believe.

Now, that’s not an insult.

It’s a reality.

In our drive for conscious consumerism and instant communication, it’s been easy to be smart, to be global and to be in touch with a quick click. We’ve taken ease for granted. We’ve slipped into bad grammar, abbreviated spelling and hieroglyphic instant messaging. We have evolved into a society that is so smart, that it is stupid.

Research conducted into the increasing speed of knowledge by organizations such as the Tagore-Einstein Foundation, states:

“It is one of the most important and intellectual tasks of our time to develop skills to perceive current phenomena in their global and historic correlation”. What does that mean? Translation: we need new “smart” skills to deal with an innovation based world culture.

Whole brain thinkers, like Ned Herrmann of the Whole Brain Institute have said that our greatest strength becomes our greatest weakness. The assumption that we can carry all knowledge, and transfer that knowledge to decision making, leads not only to personal disasters, but global shake-ups like the ones we have seen in the past few weeks.

How do we develop new smart skills? Take time to simplify what we know are the facts in our own lives. How do we take time to simplify?

The first step: we must stop. Analyze. Come to grips about our own personal realities in context.


The second step: Look back. Research past trends. Sort what we know into new categories. Determine what is really important and most important from an ethical standpoint.

The third step: Look forward. What ultimately makes sense in this situation? What needs to be renegotiated? Who holds the best smart advice we can find?

Finding the new smart skills, means that “reflection” should be added to all leadership job descriptions. Time out from the pressure leads to attention to intricate detail as well as setting and measuring standards.



The hardest question to answer just might be: “What are we holding onto that keeps us from moving forward?”

I invite you to send me your reflections/answers. Click on "comments" below.



The Coach says: the more curious you are, the more you dig and sit back to think about what's bubbling to the surface, the smarter and wiser you will be...appreciate "stupidity" for its role in "smartness".


Maggie Chicoine is a Master Coach and professional speaker, specializing in Strategic Systems Thinking and Innovative Leadership for organizations and their people. Her Keynotes are lively, provocative, and always laced with a twist of ingenuity. 1 800 587 1767.





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