Few days ago I received an e-mail from my boss, which was intended as a meeting summary. The meeting was with customer’s representatives and we discussed maintenance issues. Instead of traditional note containing raised points, discussed issues, to-dos, check points and milestones I found in the e-mail three quotations:
1. “Generally the situation is very good. The most serious issue now is outside your part of the system.” – From a guy from maintenance responsible for the system.
2. “I think we’re it a point where we can start another project with you.” – From a manager for whom we delivered the system.
3. “It was the first time I was on the meeting here, where maintenance guys had told that they practically hadn’t had any remarks.” – From our project manager, who leaded the project.
Of course “thank you” paragraph followed those quotations. However, I don’t write about that to brag about being successful in the project (to be honest it was far from perfect), but to point on a form of the message.
A standard form would count boring list of discussed subjects, which wouldn’t really pass the key message from the meeting (system works OK now). Instead the e-mail contained several brightly caught opinions from different people, who were on the meeting. All of them were saying the same thing: the system works really well.
Few things to learn from the situation:
• Don’t stick to schemes. Standard way of doing things is good for standard situations. When the situation is settled (independently if it’s good or bad) schemes play their role well (either schemes for good times or schemes for bad times). When circumstances changes it’s time to improvise. Yes, you can play safe, like you’ve always played and it will be satisfactory, but the real winners are those, who are able to exploit untypical situations. It’s the same like with the great generals (but in a less extreme way) – acting like they were taught in military high school is probably acceptable, but real winners were those who didn’t stick to schemes.
• Listen carefully. I’ve heard all those three sentences, but none of them was imprinted in my memory. None of them seemed like a part of greater whole. After the meeting I had the same feeling as my boss, but if I had to point specific proofs it would be hard. Looks like I haven’t listened carefully.
• Say thanks if you can. One thing is the meeting was nice and customer’s attitude was very positive, another is passing it to the whole team leveraging a success. I strongly believe that every addressee of the e-mail got a boost after reading it. We all probably felt that our situation improved, the system worked better etc, but nevertheless if someone (especially someone important) clearly puts it into words it has quite different meaning.
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