On dealing with professionals
Throughout my time at MTO I have had the opportunity to work with maintenance people, policy people, administrative staff etc, etc. In all of these interactions I find that “reading” the person often has a lot to do with what they do.
For instance an engineer likes to deal with details. Going into a meeting with an engineer, I know that I need to have all the history and notes on the subject at hand. (This is the case with every meeting, but with an engineer you need to have all the numbers neatly organized in the context of your objective so that you can present the situation and have the supporting information readily available.) With engineers, I like to take the lead on a meeting, so that I can present and support my arguments in the context of the immediate problem. Issues are often short term, and this allows the engineer to present their knowledge about the history before the issue arose.
On the other hand, dealing with a policy person takes a different tone. Again, you have to have all of the details neatly arranged so that you have support to your arguments, but you need to be able to think laterally with relative speed. Discussions with policy folks tend to have a more philosophical tone, and thus you need to be able to run scenarios and quickly realign your preparation to the new idea. (And also be able to quickly identify information you don’t have that might be important to the new scenario, as well as where you can get it.)
Dealing with Maintenance staff is a little rougher around the edges. Having information at your fingertips is a little less important, but having an understanding of how things work is vital. Knowing the patrols and the people who work in them is very important. A maintenance person will say, “Well Greg at vanKleekhill patrol said the trucks were out anti-icing at 1900 and the ploughs got going around 2000.” Understanding and dealing with these folks is very practical and deals with the hands on aspect of our business, and adjusting the tone of the conversation is vital to getting any real information.
Generally, when dealing with professional folks it is important to listen. Often there is a history that goes much deeper than a quick bit of research can uncover. Issues tend to span years and be handled by many different employees. Often people have stories to tell about things, and I have found lots of information buried in those stories. Things come out of these conversations, like contacts that have moved on to new positions, deals that were made but not in writing, political situations that had an influence on a situation but that never made it into the file. These things are invaluable, and you will only get at this information if you sit down and really listen carefully.