This is a famous quote attributed to Yogi Berra, the legendary Hall of Fame baseball player for the New York Yankees. I have used the technique of observation often in my professional career. When I first started out I studied the successful players in our industry. I took note of their body language in meetings, and paid attention to how they treated their clients. Sometimes I took a yellow pad and paper into the meetings and literally wrote notes on everything they were doing.
I got this technique from my old coaching days when we frequently got our best ideas from watching other successful teams. Coaches live for “film” – the short, silent (at the time) video clips from practice and games. We would watch them over and over, looking at why certain plays worked and others fell apart.
It is not enough just to observe – you also have to take time to analyze your observations. When we saw another team run a play we liked, the coaches would watch the film, diagram the play on a chalkboard, and discuss which of our players might best be able to pull it off. Similarly, if you take some notes from a meeting, review those notes the next day in your office. Think about specific things you can try out in your next meeting or presentation. Practice the body language or tone of voice that you thought made the other person look and sound professional.
Another key element to observation is learning how to keep your mouth shut and listen. We all love the sound of our own voice, and particularly in meetings it can feel imperative to constantly make yourself heard and try to get credit for ideas and input. There is a time and place for that, certainly. But you can learn a lot by letting someone else talk for awhile. Pay attention not only to what they say but how they say it.
Start in your next meeting. Put your ego on the shelf for a minute and focus on observing how the other people are conducting business. You might just learn something.
Have a great weekend,
Ro