Move the coffee pot
“Face the door” said Bert Lang.
Bert was my Dutch boss when, many years ago, I took on a management role on a chemical plant in Holland.
I’d never had my own office before. Somewhat intimidated by the whole experience, I had my desk facing the wall. “Face the door, own the room, take control” said Bert, and he was right.
I never again had a desk facing the wall!
Theatre matters. Choreography matters. It has a huge impact on what happens next.
It matters in meetings too. The chairperson or facilitator needs to think very hard about where they want to sit.
Get it wrong and the ensuing dynamics can be really hard to manage.
Get it right and you can control the meeting. You can see everybody, you are not looking sideways at anybody, you can catch people’s eye (and they yours), and you can assist conversations.
I sometimes shift position in the middle of running a meeting if I can’t see everybody adequately. It sends a strong message about empathy, and about being interested in everybody’s point of view.
I’ve seen a meeting where the centre point of the meeting was the coffee pot and associated paraphernalia. The message? – “we are here to drink coffee” rather than “we are here to have a meeting”. There were loads of side conversations taking place, literally out of sight of the chairperson.
The coffee pot got moved.
Theatre matters. Getting it right requires thought about human psychology. It doesn’t just happen.
But that thought repays itself many times over.
Face the door. Move the coffee pot.