It’s OK to Listen and Learn -OR- What Nate Burleson Taught Me about Meetings Culture
I love March Madness. Well, I mean, I used to, before it became so predictable. Speaking of which…
Congrats to the maize-and-blue-clad throng who woke up March 1st to discover for the first time in a year that their favorite frontrunners both participated in the sport of basketball and had purchased a world-class roster this trip around the sun.
The Fab 10-Million did it, and in convincing fashion. Best championship money could buy, amirite?
This season’s tournament may have lacked a soul but it featured some pretty entertaining roundball, and taught us a few lessons along the way.
Recruit big men from eastern Europe.
Advertisers still haven’t learned how to cut a decent March Madness commercial. (Merciful heaven please let me never see a Boozer or “Ted” or a “breakfast breakdown” again. Geno Auriemma knows what I’m talking about.)
And, much more relevant to a blog on a PR and public affairs company’s website, if you don’t know the answer, don’t be afraid to keep your mouth shut.
Thanks, 8Photo
This March the studio shows and halftime segments were a little different across the CBS family of networks. Ernie Johnson took a break from the anchor’s chair during the first couple of weeks and he was replaced by CBS Morning Show star and former Detroit Lion Nate Burleson.
A quick aside – I like Nate Burleson. The guy is smart, charismatic, successful, eager, fit, a world class athlete… a man of many admirable qualities.
If you watched as much basketball last month as me, though, you might have also picked up a little bit of a knowledge deficit when it comes to, well, college basketball.
At first I thought maybe I was being hyper-critical. Maybe no one else noticed Clark Kellogg and Charles Barkley constantly contradicting him. Or rolling their eyes at his suggested half-time adjustments. Or ignoring what he said and taking the conversation in another direction.
But it turns out I wasn’t the only one who noticed. The Internet has not been kind.
Now, Nate Burleson is going to be fine. He’s lived. He’s laughed. He’s learned. If he can master an NFL playbook (and he did… a few of them actually), he’ll pick up the intricacies of the fastbreak and the NIL.
His learning curve on national TV, though, gave me the chance to reflect on a quality I think most of us in and around state Capitals could benefit from honing.
When we don’t know exactly what we’re talking about, it’s OK to keep our mouths shut.
Meeting culture is tough. We’re sitting around a table, or on a Zoom, and we’re discussing ideas and opportunities, and to-dos, and the urgent and the possible and anything and everything else.
If you’re like me (I’m so, so sorry), there’s that mental impulse to offer the suggestion, or provide the idea. To demonstrate your value. Or your expertise. Or simply to break the silence.
Before we do it, though, let’s all take a beat to quietly reflect and to think that extra moment before we speak.
If you’re not sure on a topic, it’s OK to keep your mouth shut. If subject matter experts are discussing a policy approach, it’s alright to listen and learn. Truth is, they’ll probably even respect you more for it.
Like Burleson, we’re in that chair or on that call because we’ve proven our value and our ability in the past. Like Burleson, let’s keep learning and mastering new things.
Unlike Burleson, you’re probably not getting paid to keep talking. So until you’re certain you’ve got something valuable to add, don’t be afraid to find that extra value in being thoughtful and deliberate.
Like the NCAA, Go Green.