David Grady: How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings

Prevoditelj: Stjepan Mateljan Recezent: Ivan Stamenković

Picture this:

Zamislite ovo:

It's Monday morning,

Ponedjeljak je ujutro,

you're at the office,

nalazite se u uredu,

you're settling in for the day at work,

spremate se za dan na poslu,

and this guy that you sort of recognize from down the hall,

a taj neki čovjek kojeg kao znate, niže iz hodnika,

walks right into your cubicle

došeće ravno u vaš odjeljak

and he steals your chair.

i ukrade vam stolac.

Doesn't say a word —

Ne kaže ni riječ —

just rolls away with it.

samo se otkotrlja s njim.

Doesn't give you any information about why he took your chair

Ne daje vam nikakvu informaciju zašto je uzeo vaš stolac

out of all the other chairs that are out there.

od svih drugih stolaca koji su tamo.

Doesn't acknowledge the fact that you might need your chair

Ne uviđa činjenicu da možda trebate svoj stolac

to get some work done today.

da bi obavili i nekakav posao danas.

You wouldn't stand for it. You'd make a stink.

Ne biste to otrpjeli. Digli bi frku.

You'd follow that guy back to his cubicle

Slijedili bi tog čovjeka nazad u njegov odjeljak

and you'd say, "Why my chair?"

i rekli bi: "Zašto moj stolac?"

Okay, so now it's Tuesday morning and you're at the office,

Ok, a sad je utorak ujutro i nalazite se u uredu

and a meeting invitation pops up in your calendar.

i u vašem kalendaru iskoči poziv na sastanak.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

And it's from this woman who you kind of know from down the hall,

I dolazi od te žene koju kao znate, niže iz hodnika,

and the subject line references some project that you heard a little bit about.

a u nazivu sastanka se spominje neki projekt o kojem ste nešto malo čuli.

But there's no agenda.

Ali nema dnevnog reda.

There's no information about why you were invited to the meeting.

Nema informacije zašto ste pozvani na sastanak.

And yet you accept the meeting invitation, and you go.

Prihvaćate pozivnicu za sastanak i odete.

And when this highly unproductive session is over,

I kad je to vrlo neproduktivno zasjedanje gotovo,

you go back to your desk,

vraćate se do svog stola,

and you stand at your desk and you say,

i stojite tamo i kažete:

"Boy, I wish I had those two hours back,

"Čovječe, želio bih ta dva sata nazad,

like I wish I had my chair back."

isto koliko bih želio svoj stolac nazad."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Every day, we allow our coworkers,

Svaki dan, dopuštamo svojim suradnicima,

who are otherwise very, very nice people,

koji su u inače vrlo, vrlo dragi ljudi,

to steal from us.

da nam kradu.

And I'm talking about something far more valuable than office furniture.

A pričam o nečemu puno vrednijem od uredskog namještaja.

I'm talking about time. Your time.

Pričam o vremenu. Vašem vremenu.

In fact, I believe that

Zapravo, vjerujem kako

we are in the middle of a global epidemic

smo usred globalne epidemije

of a terrible new illness known as MAS:

strašne nove bolesti znane kao MAS:

Mindless Accept Syndrome.

Mindless Accept Syndrome (sindrom bezumnog prihvaćanja).

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

The primary symptom of Mindless Accept Syndrome

Primarni simptom sindroma bezumnog prihvaćanja

is just accepting a meeting invitation the minute it pops up in your calendar.

je samo prihvaćanje poziva na sastanak iste minute što je iskočio u vaš kalendar.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

It's an involuntary reflex — ding, click, bing — it's in your calendar,

te je nesvjestan refleks — ding, klik, bing — u kalendaru vam je,

"Gotta go, I'm already late for a meeting." (Laughter)

"Moram ići, već kasnim na sastanak." (Smijeh)

Meetings are important, right?

Sastanci su bitni, je li tako?

And collaboration is key to the success of any enterprise.

I suradnja je ključ uspjeha u svakom poduhvatu.

And a well-run meeting can yield really positive, actionable results.

I dobro vođen sastanak može uroditi zbilja pozitivnim, konkretnim rezultatima.

But between globalization

Ali između globalizacije

and pervasive information technology,

i prožetosti informatičkom tehnologijom,

the way that we work

način na koji radimo

has really changed dramatically over the last few years.

se zbilja dramatično promijenio tijekom zadnjih nekoliko godina.

And we're miserable. (Laughter)

I jadni smo. (Smijeh)

And we're miserable not because the other guy can't run a good meeting,

I jadni smo ne zato što neki čovjek ne može dobro voditi sastanak,

it's because of MAS, our Mindless Accept Syndrome,

nego zbog MAS, našeg sindroma bezumnog prihvaćanja.

which is a self-inflicted wound.

koji je samouzrokovana rana.

Actually, I have evidence to prove that MAS is a global epidemic.

Zapravo, imam dokaz koji ukazuje da je MAS globalna epidemija.

Let me tell you why.

Da vam kažem zašto.

A couple of years ago, I put a video on Youtube, and in the video,

Prije par godina, stavio sam video na Youtube, a u videu

I acted out every terrible conference call you've ever been on.

sam odglumio svaki strašan konferencijski razgovor moguć.

It goes on for about five minutes,

Traje otprilike pet minuta,

and it has all the things that we hate about really bad meetings.

i ima sve one stvari koje mrzimo u zbilja lošim sastancima.

There's the moderator who has no idea how to run the meeting.

Imamo predsjedavajućeg koji nema pojma kako voditi sastanak.

There are the participants who have no idea why they're there.

Imamo sudionike koji nemaju pojma zašto su tamo.

The whole thing kind of collapses into this collaborative train wreck.

Cijela stvar se nekako uruši u taj suradnički sudar vlakova.

And everybody leaves very angry.

I svi odlaze vrlo ljuti.

It's kind of funny.

Nekako je zabavno.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Let's take a quick look.

Bacimo brzi pogled.

(Video) Our goal today is to come to an agreement on a very important proposal.

(Video) Naš je cilj danas doći do sporazuma o vrlo važnom prijedlogu.

As a group, we need to decide if —

Kao grupa, moramo odlučiti ako —

bloop bloop —

blup blup —

Hi, who just joined?

Bok, tko se upravo spojio?

Hi, it's Joe. I'm working from home today.

Bok, Joe je. Danas radim od doma.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Hi, Joe. Thanks for joining us today, great.

Bok Joe. Hvala što si nam se pridružio danas, odlično.

I was just saying, we have a lot of people on the call we'd like to get through,

Baš sam bio govorio, imamo puno ljudi u pozivu kroz koji bi htjeli proći,

so let's skip the roll call

pa ajmo preskočiti prozivku

and I'm gonna dive right in.

a ja ću prijeći ravno na stvar.

Our goal today is to come to an agreement on a very important proposal.

Naš je cilj danas doći do sporazuma o vrlo važnom prijedlogu.

As a group, we need to decide if —

Kao grupa, moramo odlučiti ako —

bloop bloop —

blup blup —

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Hi, who just joined?

Bok, tko se u pravo spojio?

No? I thought I heard a beep. (Laughter)

Ne? Mislio sam da sam čuo bip. (Smijeh)

Sound familiar?

Zvuči poznato?

Yeah, it sounds familiar to me, too.

Da, i meni također zvuči poznato.

A couple of weeks after I put that online,

Nekoliko tjedana nakon što sam to stavio online,

500,000 people in dozens of countries,

500.000 ljudi iz desetaka zemalja,

I mean dozens of countries,

mislim desetaka zemalja,

watched this video.

je pogledala ovaj video.

And three years later, it's still getting thousands of views every month.

I tri godine kasnije, i dalje dobija tisuće pregleda svaki mjesec.

It's close to about a million right now.

Blizu je milijunu trenutno.

And in fact, some of the biggest companies in the world,

I zapravo, neke od najvećih kompanija na svijetu,

companies that you've heard of but I won't name,

kompanije za koje ste čuli ali ih neću imenovati,

have asked for my permission to use this video in their new-hire training

me pitalo za dopuštenje za korištenje ovog videa u njihovim treninzima za novake

to teach their new employees how not to run a meeting at their company.

da nauče svoje nove djelatnike kako ne voditi sastanak u njihovoj kompaniji.

And if the numbers —

A ako brojevi —

there are a million views and it's being used by all these companies —

milijun pregleda i što ga koriste sve te kompanije —

aren't enough proof that we have a global problem with meetings,

nisu dovoljan dokaz da imamo globalni problem sa sastancima,

there are the many, many thousands

ima puno, puno tisuća

of comments posted online

komentara objavljenih online

after the video went up.

nakon što se pojavio video.

Thousands of people wrote things like,

Tisuće je ljudi pisalo stvari poput:

"OMG, that was my day today!"

"OMG, to je bio moj dan danas!"

"That was my day every day!"

"To je bio moj dan svaki dan!"

"This is my life."

"Ovo je moj život."

One guy wrote,

Jedan je čovjek napisao,

"It's funny because it's true.

"Smješno je zato jer je točno.

Eerily, sadly, depressingly true.

Jezivo, tužno, depresivno točno.

It made me laugh until I cried.

Nasmijalo me da sam plakao.

And cried. And I cried some more."

I plakao. I još malo plakao."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

This poor guy said,

Ovaj je jadni čovjek napisao:

"My daily life until retirement or death, sigh."

"Moja svakodnevnica do mirovine ili smrti, šmrc."

These are real quotes

To su pravi citati.

and it's real sad.

I zbilja je tužno.

A common theme running through all of these comments online

Zajednička tema koja se vrti kroz sve te komentare

is this fundamental belief that we are powerless

je to temeljno vjerovanje da smo nemoćni

to do anything other than go to meetings

učiniti išta drugo nego ići na sastanke

and suffer through these poorly run meetings

i trpjeti kroz te loše vođene sastanke

and live to meet another day.

i živjeti u čekanju novog dana.

But the truth is, we're not powerless at all.

Ali istina jest, uopće nismo nemoćni.

In fact, the cure for MAS is right here in our hands.

Zapravo, lijek za MAS je točno tu u našim glavama.

It's right at our fingertips, literally.

Točno nam je pod prstima, doslovno.

It's something that I call ¡No MAS!

To je nešto što zovem ¡No MAS!

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Which, if I remember my high school Spanish,

Što, ako se dobro sjećam svog srednjoškolskog Španjolskog,

means something like, "Enough already, make it stop!"

znači nešto kao: "Dosta više, prestani!"

Here's how No MAS works. It's very simple.

Evo kako No MAS radi. Zbilja je jednostavno.

First of all, the next time you get a meeting invitation

Prije svega, slijedeći put kad dobijete pozivnicu za sastanak

that doesn't have a lot of information in it at all,

koja ne sadrži puno informacija,

click the tentative button!

kliknite tipku 'privremeno ne znam'!

It's okay, you're allowed, that's why it's there.

U redu je, dopušteno je, zato i postoji.

It's right next to the accept button.

Odmah je do tipke 'prihvaćam'.

Or the maybe button, or whatever button is there for you not to accept immediately.

ili tipku 'možda', ili koja je god tipka raspoloživa da ne prihvatite odmah.

Then, get in touch with the person who asked you to the meeting.

Potom, čujte se s osobom koja vas je zvala na sastanak.

Tell them you're very excited to support their work,

Recite im da ste vrlo uzbuđeni da im podržite rad,

ask them what the goal of the meeting is,

pitajte ih koji je cilj sastanka,

and tell them you're interested in learning how you can help them achieve their goal.

i recite im da ste zainteresirani naučiti kako im možete pomoći da ostvare cilj.

And if we do this often enough,

A ako to radimo dovoljno često,

and we do it respectfully,

i ako to radimo s uvažavanjem,

people might start to be a little bit more thoughtful

ljudi mogu početi biti malo promišljeniji

about the way they put together meeting invitations.

u načinu na koji sastavljaju pozivnice za sastanke.

And you can make more thoughtful decisions about accepting it.

A vi možete donositi promišljenije odluke o njihovom prihvaćanju.

People might actually start sending out agendas. Imagine!

Ljudi možda zbilja počnu slati i dnevni red. Zamislite!

Or they might not have a conference call with 12 people to talk about a status

Ili bi mogli ne imati konferencijski razgovor sa 12 ljudi u kojem raspravljaju stanje

when they could just do a quick email and get it done with.

kad bi mogli samo poslati brzi email i tako riješiti stvar.

People just might start to change their behavior because you changed yours.

Ljudi bi baš mogli i promijeniti svoje ponašanje, jer ste vi to učinili.

And they just might bring your chair back, too. (Laughter)

I možda bi vam i vratili vaš stolac, također (Smijeh)

No MAS!

No MAS!

Thank you.

Hvala vam!

(Applause).

(Pljesak)