Experienced Working Opponauts: Question

"Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis" (Dwhite95)
06/10/2015 at 19:46 • Filed to: None

Semi-rant semi-question after the jump. Have a Cuda for your time.

So in my internship, outside of our regular duties, the interns have been split into groups and been given the task to come up with an idea and find a way to implement an idea to improve sustainability at the company we work for. Skip to the bottom for jist of things.

So we had our first meeting in our group today as a brainstorming session. Someone came in with an idea already in mind and pitched it, his idea was urban gardening. Now, its a brainstorming session so that kind of thing is fine. But this guy pitched it hard and people were starting to get on board, again mostly okay. The issue came when they immediately went to how to implement it, deciding that this was the way to go. At this point I bring up that we have no other ideas, and that their plan has an extremely large amount of variables for not even having any other ideas, they ignore me. At this point its 8 against 1, everyone is totally on board, but me. They keep talking about doing it, I bring up all the variables individually, they dont care. At this point I’m getting frustrated and a bit angry and say “What do we do if this fails, completely, nothing salvageable at all. What do we do then?” I know it was rude, but I figured that might get people to come up with other ideas. They tell me to chill out and calm down, and go back to talking about their “plan”. At this point I figuratively throw my hands up and figure that I will have to wait for it to fail to have change. At the end of the meeting the person who managed to wrestle leadership into his corner decided what we need to do is determine what land is ours (what they want to use isnt ours), go to the city and see if we are allowed to urban garden (probably not), and go and get an urban gardening consultant to assist (way outside our scope and authority).

So anyways, the TL;DR of the whole thing is we have a group of 10 young people, most of which are all trying to take point on a project and refusing to consider variables or other options. What can I do next time so I dont blow up again, and possibly get people to listen?

One guy did end up agreeing with me, too bad it was after the meeting that he told me.

DISCUSSION (18)

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 19:56

Drink an Irish coffee, look like your taking notes but just doodle instead, keep any thoughts about it to yourself, come up with a better idea, keep drinking, agree with the idea, tell them all how much you’re now convinced, slowly transition to something completely off topic, keep getting further and further away from it, finally when everyone has forgotten about the original idea, say it’s time for lunch and that the original idea is a silly waste of time and walk out.

Funktheduck > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 19:56

Stab someone as soon as the group gets together. Tell them if they don't act like adults instead of a bunch of little bitches they'll all get stuck.

GeorgeyBoy > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 20:00

Don’t have any advice, but that sounds like every meeting I’ve attended.

Good thing I’m the equivalent of a coat hanger or I would lose my shit every 15 minutes. Just wave and smile.

DrJohannVegas > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 20:02

Hate to be the bringer of bad news (partially because it means educators failed to temper optimism of that nature in an earlier education phase), but sometimes these folks have to see things blow up before they realize that wanting something and doing something are two different things. You’ve got the head start on it, so use the time to prep a backup/recovery plan. When it all hits the fan, you can emphasize that enthusiasm is good (use all those business-ey words), but you gotta start from what you have. If you can recover even a bit of the magic from the (inevitable?) shitstorm, you’ll have made huge progress.

Also, I’m sorry. Follow Arch Duke’s advice.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > GeorgeyBoy
06/10/2015 at 20:03

In the meetings with my team I’m dead silent. But this one I could, hypothetically at least, contribute. Apparently not...

GeorgeyBoy > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 20:12

I’m not used to anything like that considering everyone I work with is at least 10 years older than me.

I’m not trying to be reminded of my place anytime soon.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > GeorgeyBoy
06/10/2015 at 20:28

Almost everyone on my team is way older than me. But there are enough intern around that you see other people similar in age. That being said I’m one of the youngest interns where Im working.

DipodomysDeserti > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
06/10/2015 at 20:35

And that, folks, is how you office hussle. No one ever listens to the “but guys, that won’t work” guy.

GeorgeyBoy > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 20:40

Damn. I wish I had someone I could associate with, or look good next to. Have you been doing actual work yet?

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > GeorgeyBoy
06/10/2015 at 20:43

Mostly just dummy projects and requirements gathering that they will never actually use any of since the project I’m in is too important. But yeah, there are 37 interns at the place Im working at. Are you the only on where you are working?

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > DipodomysDeserti
06/10/2015 at 20:44

I did a stint in QC, I learned from the best.

zipfuel > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 21:27

Yup, sounds like pretty textbook groupthink and without a preset framework for driving the discussion the loudest mouth will usually prevail.

Brainstorming generally sucks: there’s a whole bunch of creativity tools created by marketers and business wonks that work better. “100mph thinking” and “parallel universes” are a couple that come to mind.

This article gives the gist of the exercise,

http://www.inspireux.com/2013/07/18/tip…

A lot of people make money teaching this crap to “leaders” but you’ll probably find equally good help online.

GeorgeyBoy > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 22:04

Long story short, sorta. Well at my location.

There’s about 16 total company wide.

epidemike > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/10/2015 at 22:11

Ok, so sometimes you have to be the asshole...embrace it.

Your viewpoints were totally a valid point, especially the part about what do we do if this fails. Always have a Plan B and probably a plan C because shit will go wrong and you will have mistakes made and you need alternatives in the real world.

Now if you dont want to come off sounding like the asshole, make it a compromise. Tell them “I really like the urban gardening idea but we should have at least a secondary option in case we run into any major snags.” Basically you want to CYA (cover your ass).

Also when having a meeting, you should have an agenda and stick to it. That way you dont get off track with your bullet points of to dos.

BTW, I’d hire you on my team just for your ability to see the big picture.

epidemike > DipodomysDeserti
06/10/2015 at 22:14

True if you say “but guys, that won’t work” , however if you present reasons behind your approach as to why that wont work and the potential repercussions, you’ll see how folks ears perk up.

DipodomysDeserti > epidemike
06/10/2015 at 22:30

Never lead with a negative. You'll instantly get shut out.

epidemike > DipodomysDeserti
06/10/2015 at 22:53

You can lead with a negative, just dont go full debbie downer.

BlurpleToyotaDishwasher > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
06/11/2015 at 06:32

Work out a plan B with the other guy, then wait for Plan A to fuck up.