Brief Yourself

In today’s age of the internet, it surprises me how little we know about people and companies, and even the day’s events, before we go into a meeting or social setting. You no longer need an assistant to debrief you of everything, although I love the thought of that. You can do it yourself. I am probably giving something away here and making myself seem less smart by admitting this, but I think it is better than not doing it all.

Before I meet with someone I “google” him and see what I can find out about him first. I do that for everyone who I know will be present whom I don’t know. If nothing else, I will at least be able to put a face with the name. This is really helpful for people who are as bad at remembering names as I am. Then I will “google” the company, project or related projects and read up on them. This will save you time and make them feel like you know enough about them to care. How impressive does it make them feel when you know the last show they did or the last project they worked on? It makes everyone feel good, and only takes a little bit of effort.

If you know me, you know I often get lost in classical plays. So before I go, I read a synopsis, and now that we have Wikipedia, I can not only read the synopsis, but I can also get background about performances, learn the origin of the play and read what scholars thought about the show. In 5 minutes of reading, I have enough information to talk to anyone about the play that I might have gotten from just watching.

Take the time and brief yourself before you go see these shows or go into these meetings. It will make a marginal difference in how your evening or day plays out.