Make it count

Like many other engineers, I haven’t seen a button I didn’t want to press nor a lever I didn’t want to pull. Curiosity as to what actions they trigger is like a siren’s song to me.

My first team meeting in a corporate environment involved close to 30 people across multiple locations connected into a single conference. One of the many microphones in the room sat right in front of me. Each microphone had a button… perfectly designed to be pressed again and again and again. I geeked over the perfect resistance to touch, the subtle contrast in material to its broader base, the perfectly-sized LED oscillating between green and red, I mean, this was a cool button to interact with. That is, until it dawned on me that this cool button in front of me was muting everyone in my location… again and again and again.

How many meetings do you attend that result in your mind wondering to random curiosities? Considering that you likely thought of low-value meetings you attend, why do you accept this?

—> Many organizations are leveraging Lean/Six Sigma methodologies intended to optimize effort and eliminate waste. Short structured huddles, a “Did we win the week?” debrief to assess activity and the value it creates (or not), and genuine morale checks can be highly effective at reducing the risk you will find yourself daydreaming in a meeting.

Chances are your company has committed to these methodologies. Did you react with a sense of cynicism? Were you frustrated at having to track details of your work that were not important to you before? Do you think this is just the latest management fad that too shall pass?

—> We are all predisposed to resist change, and corporate programs never rollout without significant bumps. The challenge is to develop an instinct for seeing past less-than-perfect execution, and to keep our cynicism - however justified - in check.