Chapter 33. The Screw-Me Scenario
It had all the signs of a good meeting. And I hate meetings. We were:
Talking about a product we loved
In great shape from a feature, quality, and schedule standpoint
A group that historically did not kick ass
A group that was kicking ass
The slides looked great and the dry run was flawless, so why hadnât I slept in two nights?
I couldnât sleep because I couldnât see the Screw-Me.
You Might Be Lying
There are endless interesting variants of meetings, but the one I want to talk about is the executive cross-pollination communication clusterfuck. The point of this meeting is alignment. Big alignment. Youâve likely got several different groups who donât normally spend a lot of time together being forced to sit in the same room so the execs can compare stories, measure reality, and figure out who is lying.
Before I explain how to get your head around this meeting, I want to talk about intent behind this meeting. Intent starts with a question: âWhy does this meeting exist?â If youâre responsible for the presentation in this particular meeting, it exists because someone hates you.
Itâs not personal hate. Itâs professional hate, and itâs exacerbated by a simple fact of organization: different groups speak different languages. Marketing speaks marketing, Legal speaks legal, and Engineering speaks engineering. Thereâs a fundamental communication breakdown somewhere in the building, and someone is feeling wronged. Theyâre feeling bullied ...
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