How to prepare for high stakes meetings and customer issues? I do a lot of government contract work, and sometimes situations just blow up and require super-duper high stakes but maybe not really all that perceived importance. You know some things just get blown out of proportion and everybody goes crazy needing an answer right away, and a lot of times if you have a ton of responsibilities. It can be hard to keep on top of everything you need to do.
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So what I normally do is, this is gnitty gritty details, this is not high level stuff, is create either an individual folder, physical folder, print out the things that I need, and carry that with me, in the office or at home or wherever I’m at so I’ll have the immediate concerns and questions laid out; the meetings, the notes we talked about, in kind of a logical flow of where we started to where we are now to what we need to do to get to the next steps. And this includes drawings, technical data sheets, specifications, procedures, every little bitty thing that you think you need for it, but in one concentrated location.
I also prefer the method of having it on the laptop or usb drive or something, you know paying attention to the companies’ computer and digital rules of course. But having everything right in that one thing, even if there’s an online repository or what not, just saving your stuff, the ten steps it takes to go get it and check it out can make a big difference when you got 15 different things you have to check that turns out to be 100 steps each time you have a conversation.
But, you got this individual folder with every little bit you need on it, in one concentrated location, that all you have to do is open up and everything is right there; now all you have to do is focus on one area of expertise or piece of hardware this may not be an issue for you, but I have in addition to my regular business duties, and my contracting duties, where it’s possible for hundreds and hundreds of pieces of hardware and systems it can be hard to keep track of with multiple customers and it does require a little bit more organization and focused effort.
So give that a shot, put your thoughts together, even things you don’t think you need but are somehow related, put em all in there and you’ll have them available and you just might stumble across the little bit of hint that you need to get the problem solved. And there you go.