My imaginary but oh-so-real friend Bernice asks, How do I prepare to give my opinion? I show up with my thoughts, but people don’t listen.

Let’s help Bernice by revisiting the scene of the crime.

 “The Power of YOU!’ is a terrible name for a show!” Bernice was livid. She waddled furiously into the room, tossing the proposal onto the table, rosebud lips pursed in annoyance. “I am an enlightened being. Enlightened beings understand that we are all One. There is no ‘me,’ and there is no ‘you.’ The Power of YOU discriminates against we who have found enlightenment!” She assumes her Personal Power Posture, glaring at the rest of the team, spearing the proposal beneath her left index finger, right hand planted firmly on her, er, (with Bernice it’s kind of hard to tell. I think it’s her hip).

We were late. There was no time for drama. “Bernice,” I said, “that’s EWE – E-W-E. This show is about a talking sheep with superpowers who fights crime while balancing career and family.” If Bernice had read the manuscript instead of complaining about it, she would have known that. “Harumph!” she declared, sat down, and busied herself in her paperwork. Melvin whispered, a bit too loudly, “I’ll bet you feel sheepish!” The look she gave him could have melted steel.

When you have the chance to give your opinion, or input, on an important decision at work, you want people walking away thinking that you’re the most brilliant person in existence, whose opinion not only matters, but is worthy of worship. You don’t want them questioning the existence of your body parts.

How to be Prepared to Give Your Opinion

When there’s a decision to be made, your key to success is reading the background material. Sounds like common sense, right? You’d be amazed how many people don’t do it. Our usual reason is there’s way too much to read and not nearly enough time. But you don’t have to read it in detail. Strategic skimming can make meeting prep much less work.

Your goal is to be able to argue for the choices you support, against the choices that your nemesis from Department X supports, and be able to base your position on logic, facts, and rational analysis.

Skim the Background Material

You will prepare by skimming. You won’t read in detail; you’ll use your brain’s natural ability to hone in on information you choose. By the time you’re done, you will have skimmed the material several times, and absorbed a fair amount of it. You’ll do a deep dive, but only for the stuff that’s important for the meeting.

Skim to Identify the Choices

Start with a blank piece of paper and a blue Pilot G-2 .038mm pen. (My favorite!!) Label the top of the paper “Choices.” Grab your prep material and prepare to skim. This first time through, all you’re looking for are the alternatives that will be discussed at the meeting. In our prep materials for the show title meeting, we were considering The Power of Ewe, Lancelot and Ethyl: a Good Knight’s Sheep, and What is Wool Worth? Write down the alternatives, numbered, with enough detail that you know what each one is. With play titles, it’s easy—just write down the title. If the alternatives are technical or specialized, you might need more descriptive text. For example, when choosing paper, “Ivory Sku 323” may not mean much, so you would also write, “smooth, cream-colored, rag-based paper. Made from T-shirts left in college dorms. Smells like teen spirit.” Just enough to jog your memory.

Skim to Identify the Pros and Cons of Each Choice

Get out a second sheet of paper. For each alternative, re-skim the prep materials and pull out the pros and cons. Alternative 1, The Power of Ewe. Pro: short and memorable. Con: Could be imply that sheep are a source of green energy. Alternative 2, Lancelot and Ethyl: a Good Knight’s Sheep. Pro: puts the King Arthur connection front and center. Con: Requires space for a subtitle on the marquee.

With the pros and cons listed in one place, as soon as the alternative comes up for discussion, you’ll be ready. You know both sides of the argument, so you can empathize with whoever’s talking. If you like the choice, you can emphasize the pros while countering the cons. If the choice is sucky, you can suggest alternatives that preserve the pros while not having the same cons. For example, Bernice could have suggested Goldi-Flocks. It’s short, memorable, and doesn’t imply sheep are an energy source. (It does suggest sheep lay golden eggs, but that’s a different problem.)

Skim for Underlying Logic

For things that really matter, skim one more time. This time, read for the underlying logic behind the pros and cons. If The Power of Ewe is a good title because it’s memorable, ask why that matters. Your answer might be that memorable titles make for easy word of mouth (like the phrase Work Less and Do More in my forthcoming book The Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More). Knowing that word of mouth is the underlying logic, you can use that in the meeting. If Bernice had done this step and didn’t like The Power of Ewe, she could have asked the group to brainstorm other easy-word-of-mouth titles.

You’ll find this is a quick and easy way to prepare to give your opinion with less work than reading all the background material in detail. Skim to identify choices, skim for pros and cons, and lastly skim for logic. Arrange it all in bullet points so the moment the conversations goes there, you can follow. Or lead. Like Bernice tried to do. Only in your case, we’ll be too busy worshipping your logic to dwell on whether or not you have hips.

Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!

Man with Tablet image courtesy of Shutterstock