I was asked by a CFO of a hospital, who attended a talk I gave on ‘Working & Managing Across Generations’ to contact the hospitals HR director and Workforce Education director. He arranged the conference call and we all agreed upon a time and date. BUT the CFO would not be on the call.
Not sure if you have ever had this happen and when it does either party can start spinning into the “why are we here?”.
Here is how the call started following the introduction banter.
Me, “Thank you for taking your time today did CFO give you any idea into why he wanted us to talk?”
Them, “No” already off to a great start
Me, nervous laughter “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions then we can talk about some ideas and how we can be valuable to each other?”
Them, “Sounds Great”
The call was saved, by asking one question.
What are you already doing well with your work in organization development and training within the company?
You could hear and feel the excitement from the other end of the phone…They shared for almost 20 minutes all the great stuff they were doing. And from that I was able to ask more questions, and offer some ideas / coaching / articles / workshops that can complement what they are already doing.
On to the Inquiry
What are you already doing that is working well?
Try it…it works.
image by Chicago Art Department