It's easier to react than to create
You wouldn’t show up empty handed to a dinner party, right? 🍗🍷
Well, you shouldn’t show up empty handed to any meeting where you’re seeking feedback.*
Why? Let’s dive in….
Over 17 years ago I was still new to consulting and learned a valuable lesson on one of my first projects.
I was a business analyst working at a global pharmaceutical client. The project lead and I were going to be meeting with the client lead to talk about scope and approach for a 1,000 person pilot.
I thought we’d just show up and have a brainstorm together to create the strategy.
You know, just a few dudes spittin’ out amazing ideas.
But instead, the project lead asked me to put a few slides together showing some initial thoughts on how we could structure the pilot.
Along with that ask, he shared some advice that’s stuck with me to this day: “It’s easier for people to react to something, than to create from nothing.”
While this sounds intuitive now, it was not obvious to me then.
Senior leaders in all walks of life have a lot on their plates. Where you can reduce cognitive load for them, you’ll be helping them out and moving things along faster.
Let’s look at this from a different angle to help drive the point home.
Let’s say you’re building a new house. 🏠
In scenario 1, you have to pick out all the decor: lighting, paint colors, cabinet hardware, flooring, door style, and everything else. It demands a lot of time, a lot of research, and a lot of thought. (I know because I did this…scrolling through pages and pages of lighting styles is not fun.)
In scenario 2, a designer asks some questions to understand your style and then brings you three options for each area: three types of lighting, three color swatches, three hardware choices, and so on. You just point at the ones you like.
Isn’t scenario 2 so much easier? It’s not cognitively demanding. It’s fast.
Now, there is art to figuring out how polished something needs to be to solicit feedback. It does need to be far enough along for feedback to be effective.
What that looks like depends on the project and the people — some people claim they just want something quick and dirty but really expect a near-finished product. These are things you’ll have to learn about your manager/client/etc over time.
Some will decry this as busy work.
But what happens if you get in that meeting and the client is struggling to conceptualize what needs to happen. Or you start swirling around something that’s not really important.
Now you mind need a second meeting, or a third, or — well, you get it — to get back on track.
It’s honestly faster to take time up front to get things down on paper.
*If what you need feedback on is so simple that you don’t need a supporting artifact, then I’d question whether you actually need a meeting in the first place: just use email, Slack, etc.