We walk into meetings the way we walked out of the last one...
...still thinking about the email we didn't answer.
Back to back, all day. There's barely time to find the right room.
Surgeons have a habit I think every person in management or leadership could borrow.
In 2007, a team led by the surgeon Atul Gawande tested a one-page checklist in eight hospitals in eight cities around the world, London among them.
It asked the whole surgical team to stop at three moments. One of them was just before the first cut.
At that point everyone in the room pauses. They check they've got the right patient and the right procedure, and that everyone knows what's about to happen.
It takes about a minute.
Think about who's in that room. Some of the most skilled, most senior people in any hospital, under real time pressure, being asked to stop and check things they'd say they already know.
You can imagine how some of them felt about that.
Then the results came in, from 7,688 patients.
Major complications fell from 11% to 7%.
Deaths in hospital fell from 1.5% to 0.8%. That's almost half.
Because of one minute, before the moment that mattered.
Now think about your next meeting.
I imagine you'll walk in still chewing over the last one.
Most of us assume that's fine, because we're experienced. We've done a thousand of these.
So were the surgeons.
I'd say that's what the pause is really for. It gets you off autopilot and into the room you're actually in.
It's something I do routinely before my client sessions. I check in with myself, notice my state of mind, my feelings, my body, and then remind myself that I'm more than each of those. It helps create some objectivity and spaciousness in my awareness before we begin.
So here's something small to try this week.
Pick one meeting that matters. Before you open the door, or click to join, stop for one minute.
Feel your feet on the floor. Let one long breath out.
Then ask yourself one question...
...what does this meeting actually need from me?
I'd guess the answer is often a lot smaller, and a lot clearer, than whatever you were carrying in with you.
It might feel a bit odd the first time, standing outside a meeting room breathing. It's one minute. No one needs to see or know. The surgeons managed it.
Try it once and see what impact it has on the meeting and, most importantly, on you.
Matt
Sources: Haynes, Gawande and colleagues, 'A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population', New England Journal of Medicine (2009)