Week 6 – First sign of trouble

For the first time since I started at the Bose Corporation a month ago, I went to a meeting that was disorganized, had no clear leader, and was not productive. This week my team had a meeting with a woman I had never met before named Lauren, whose job is to make sure that the various teams at Bose are following the right steps in a timely manner for launching their product. My team is in the beginning of the process of launching a product that will hit the market in late 2019, if all goes as planned. The product manager is starting to organize people and make sure everyone knows what their responsibilities are going forward. Lauren is used to a standard Bose “go-to-market” plan, but since the division I am working in is new and the product we are going to launch is different, the process needs to be different as well. Although the overall framework of launching our product is similar, there are different people involved, different channels, and different messaging to be concerned with.

Since nobody from Bose has launched a product like this before (I am not being specific about the product to protect the confidentiality of the company), there is nobody who we can turn to for guidance on how to approach it. For this reason, the meeting was disorganized and it became clear Lauren, who is from outside of my small team, was not fully aware of the goals and objectives specific to our product. Additionally, there were three people on my team, who are all formal leaders, that were each pitching in and talking over each other. They did not speak rudely, but they each had so many questions to ask in the small one-hour window of the meeting time that there were more questions asked than answered. After the meeting I talked to my manager, one of the three formal leaders in attendance, and she agreed that the meeting was left with more confusion than we had going into it.

Going forward, I will suggest that the three formal leaders on my team get together and compile their questions for Lauren before going into the room blindly again. Without compiling their thoughts, the discussion prompted questions, which led to tangents, which led to more questions. At the end of the hour, one of the leaders on my team and Lauren met for another half hour to clear things up. I am interested to hear from him if the one-on-one discussion was more productive and provided more clarity.

The biggest problem was that we were not focused on the goal. When it comes to leadership, there should have been someone who stepped up and reminded the group to stay on topic. The discussion that was had was relevant, but it was not the purpose of the meeting. I think the best way for me to get involved is to share my thoughts with my direct manager. I see her as a mentor and I am very comfortable expressing concerns to her. I was able to talk to her a briefly after the meeting about how unproductive it was, and she agreed, but I would like to provide the suggestions I mentioned above in hopes of helping. My leadership background has proven to be useful in this company and I am glad I have a chance to show that to my team.