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| Source: Freedictionary.com |
Have you seen the Progressive Insurance commercial with Dads’
Support Group for people who are saying and doing things their dads did? Are you now equivalent to dad in the office? One way you’ve become dad, that is a senior
staff member, is the harangue. You tell
the history of the program, the project, when most have already heard it. It’s true some of the new staff may not know the
history and history can be important. Staff
want to move on to new programs, projects or solutions. It just takes up a lot of time when you could
be problem solving. Millenials and GenXers, what are you seeing in the work place,
vowing you’ll never say or do? Senior staff, what are you doing that
you never thought you would be doing? Tell
me about the time you…
Are there solutions when you have someone on the way to the harangue? Sure there are.
Tactics to Challenge the
Harangue
The harangue occurs when one person dominates the committee
meeting, the staff meeting or just a conversation. You’ve probably seen the Progressive
Insurance commercial with the Dads’ Support Group for people who are saying and
doing things their dads did? The
harangue can be interesting and useful at first, but it often takes up time,
and you’ve heard it many times before. It fails to help you solve the current
problem. Here are some things you can
do.
1. Chairs of meetings. You know the drill.
Start your meeting on time and end on time.
This works
most of the time although I’ve seen the haranguer hijack meetings. It takes a strong chair. I chaired a meeting one time in which I suddenly
jumped up and said I had to leave. I had a bus
to catch. It’s true, I did. You might not have that extreme a need to end
the meeting, but you do need to investigate questions that arose in the
meeting.
2. Attendees.
If you are an attendee to a meeting, discretely leave when the
meeting should be over. Don’t leave
before the meeting is scheduled to end.
Yes, you might not want to do this
if your boss is the chair, but a team meeting might be just the place. You have to judge how others will feel about
this. Will they resent this actions and
accuse you of not being a team player?
3. Telecommuters. If the harangue is a
phone conversation, dust.
I
discovered that a colleague of mine also had this tactic. I have cleaned places I would never imagine
cleaning. The harangue sometimes contains
information you do need as well as the history you’ve heard. If someone else is home, have that person
call you loudly so you can end the conversation. Don’t use the excuse of another call on the
line. It’s rude.
4. Hallway
conversations. Continue walking. Don’t
stop.
Are there solutions if you are the one who likes to harangue. Sorry. We'll need to have a support group for you at work for that.
Are there solutions if you are the one who likes to harangue. Sorry. We'll need to have a support group for you at work for that.
You can see the Progressive Commercial that inspired me on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/XMaIFg-gMIk
