Business advice no longer comes from just conventional sources these days. Though they have neither an MBA or corporate experience on their CVs, Jesus and Ghenghis Khan (among other notable mavens of commerce) are being offered by gimmick-seeking publishers as posessors of sage business counsel.
But I would urge those really anxious for input from the anti-spreadsheet crowd to turn their attention to last week's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Harold Pinter. His advice can be summed up in one word: Silence.
Pinter's pauses are legendary. An entire taxonomy of pauses, silences, and moments of freighted intent hanging in pendancy is required to stage his often wordless scripts.
And these silences are what business needs more of. We're deep in a high-chatter, instant response, fill-the-frequency verbal flood. Meetings are a series of backed up, stacked up mini-speeches.
Of course, the more we talk the less we think. We're so afraid that someone will get ahead of us that there's barely a nano-second of silence. We're afraid of it. We're amped up and silence is a symbol of indecision or lack of clarity or a lack of forward motion. We're dangerously ponderless.
Imagine, if you will, a business meeting as a Pinter play. Those sometimes ominoius silences would snap a few key points into resolute focus, the way white space around a wall brings meaning and attention to a painting.
Silence lets thoughts remain alive and electric in the air, a subject of consideration, rather than being obliterated by a reactive torrent of numbing commentary.
That makes silence both celebratory and damning. It beams attention to smart and wise thinking which would otherwise be missed, while isolating stupidity and cant that would otherwise be forgiven.
Less Mamet and more Pinter would turn meetings from competitive talk fests into sessions where actual insight might be born and progress made. We might actually learn to interpret nuances, textures, and shadings. Who knows, that could be Sweden's second biggest business gift to America after Ikea.
Related Stories: | Topics:, Harold Pinter, Media, Books and Literature, Literary Awards, United States |
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Recent Comments | 7 Total
October 19, 2005 at 11:42pm by roger fulton
Oh God, not another zen movement for business, I'm thinking. Another bald-headed Cove7 type that gets our bosses off to a chorus or corporate "hums." Jesus, no - not that. I will cut my throat.Why do you think the American worker tops vacation as his most "wanted" list?We all need another meeting. Speaking as one of the "preached-at," you have better had something of value to say, and include us in on the decision making process, or otherwise what you're going to get back is a lot of plastic yes' and a cacophony of SILENCE.
Did you ever ask yourselves why we needed to get better at what ever it is we needed to get better at?? Who stuck us IN THAT HOLE?
So, if the latest Mantra, from the new-issue business guru has the hottest patent idea on how this whole thing will turn "us" around, let's hear it. We,...that's us in middle management know for sure the following:
1. we get to do it.
2. if it works, the press reports will say
it's due to the top guy's genius
3. he gets the big bucks for it
4. we get the 4.5% inflation raise
5. if it doesn't work, we get "downsized."
6. he gets the golden parachute and the
champagne blowout in Manhattan Towers.
Caio.....http://spaces.msn.com/members/rogerroost
October 20, 2005 at 9:13am by BillS
Conducting meetings as a silent session with some exceptions for talking is a bit extreme. However, the author is right-on in implying that verbal-diarrhea overwhelms what are supposed to be productive, strategic, thought provoking events. There are no manners in meetings - everyone is chomping at the bit to speak next, interruptions are the norm. Even our CEO has to tell people not to interrupt in order for him to get a word in.
I have always lived by the dictum that rules are made to be broken. In contrast to that, I believe that today's corporate (and non-corporate) meetings need rules in a big way!
- BillS
October 20, 2005 at 10:16am by tom dittus
Can't tell you how many corporate meetings I had to sit through, where some big gasbag put 15 minutes of information into 8 hours. That was one major reason why I had to get out and do my own thing. Point made. The end.
October 20, 2005 at 11:07am by david kramer
I agree with the author. There is a large role that silence, reflection and appreciation can play in the corporation.
At FHG, I practice a form of sales & marketing communication that is based on Dialogue. This is an organizational communication process developed at MIT's Sloan School, Center for Organizational Learning. It is based on Bohmian Dialogue, drawn from the writings & lectures of quantum physicist David Bohm.
In our model, we coach and train sales & non-selling professionals professionals to shift their traditional "sales conversation" from 80 percent speaking/20 percent listening to 20 percent speaking/80 percent listening.
By listening with more appreciation, and pausing to genuinely reflect, we can empower our customers to share their underlying needs and requirements. This is in stark contrast to the traditional sales conversation designed to overpower customers with slick, manipulative pitches.
We can sell to help. It's a post-modern approach. But our intent has to be genuine!
Thanks,
DK
October 20, 2005 at 12:20pm by Ben Lockett
I can see where the author is going with this one, but an effort to provide quality and not quantity would be heading in the right direction. And get rid of those awful powerpoint slides. A picture says a 1,000 words; in the case of powerpoint 1,000 words spoken in serbo croat.
October 20, 2005 at 12:51pm by R. Sinfield
Looks like one of those Extreme Extroverts stopped talking long enough in one of those Myers-Briggs team training classes to actually HEAR that Ultimate Introverts aren't going to engaged in a shouting match (aka "business meeting") to share ideas. They will find another avenue or take their ideas and start their own company.
SPIN selling also includes the 80/20 listening/talking ratio. It's quite entertaining to watch a "sales pro" nearly implode trying to listen when all he/she really wants to do is SELL!
October 20, 2005 at 1:02pm by mahendrakumardash
Silence is not always rewarded.Though most of the time it is the work that speaks,at times one has to speak out so that others listen and think merit
of the person or company.