This is probably the worst time to learn something from Jamie Dimon, but I'm going to post this anways...
Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan’s CEO attended Business school at Harvard. As the school is known for its case method, there are countless sessions where the students interact with the professors teaching the classes and they go into deep discussions with each other about everything(hopefully related to business).
On one occasion, Jamie was speaking and another student began wildly waving a wand; Dimon turned around and said – “can you put your f***ing hand down and let me finish talking?”
Asking question is important. If someone is an incompetent, chances are, it’s because they didn’t ask enough questions.
But good learners understand the difference between healthy interjections and interruptions. Raising your hand for the sake of raising your hand and being loud is not going to do you any good. It’s the quality of the argument and not the quantity of hand raises that make an impression.
This certainly ties in with effective listening as well. It’s so easy to speak up in meetings for a lot of us and point errors at what others do and call them out, or worse, stop them right there.
But more typically, given that you actually care about what’s going on in the company, you’re faced with the dilemma - should I interrupt this person and express my concern / question / opinion now, or should I wait till the end and risk losing the train of thought and the point I was trying to make.
Here’s a start, assess the experience of the group in the business or organization. If everyone is a veteran, chances are it’s best to wait till the end. But here’s a tactic to prevent yourself from forgetting your point; keep a totem with yourself (a pen, a chess piece etc.), and doodle with it (besides, there’s positive effects to doodling anyways) and as soon as you feel the urge to ask a question, write it down, move on and continue to listen carefully. Chances are that the presenter / speaker will land exactly where the question is appropriate for asking or will say something like – “any questions so far?”
That would be the best time to ask because you don’t come off as someone who interjects every statement the presenter makes and dominates the conversation, but also as someone who respects everyone else’s time.
Be sure to question everything in your life, because those who live with status quo are bound to live in sideways. The balance between interjection and interruption is something everyone needs to achieve.
