Lesson 2 | Step 1: Present Talk (2:43 minutes)
Step 1: Present Talk
Step one in the meeting plan is something that we call present talk. As we'll get into, a lot of people refer to this as small talk. We really look at it as a bit different. Let me break that down for you. Typically, when people show up for a meeting like this, they're not typically present. The whole design of the concept of present talk is really about getting them present. We need them present, you need them present. You need them to be focused on really the job at hand here. In order to be able to do that, you really have to have some easy set up and what we call greeting conversations. Most of the people, as I said, refer to that as small talk.
The reality is that this stuff isn't small talk. It's really, really critical, and it's all designed about being able to get them present in the time that we're going to spend here together. You might do that by asking them about the day and get a little understanding of what that has been like, give them an opportunity to talk about it. What was their morning like, their afternoon, whatever, depending on where they've come from. You give them an opportunity to get that off and get that out of the way and talk about it. You might inquire where they're coming from, again, give them an opportunity to remove themselves away from where they were and where they're coming from to being present, being live, being in this meeting, being in this opportunity with you.
Then finally, it's really, really important to bring them into the present to really round this off with reassuring them that some real focused time together is going to be really, really productive for them. This is a good thing. Again, just to walk through this a little bit further, this is about bringing them to the present. People are not present when they come to these meetings. They've had a lot of stuff going on throughout the day, throughout the morning. You never know what's transpired, conversations they have had, interactions that they've had, the traffic, things of that nature. This is all designed about bringing them to the present.
Again, it's not small talk. It's present talk. Ask them questions that will allow them to move away from where they've been and what's transpired to this point to bringing them into some real focused time together that's really going to be productive for us. You will be really, really successful in step one of this, and really bringing them present, and really doing and delivering the present talk.