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How to Seem Smart in Meetings

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How to Seem Smart in Meetings

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November 2017

Appearing smart in meetings can be hard, “if you start daydreaming about your next vacation, your next nap, or bacon.” Good Money offers 10 tricks to seem engaged, anyway.

Draw a Venn diagram.

“Even before you’ve put that marker down, your colleagues will begin fighting about what exactly the labels should be and how big the circles should be, etc.”

Translate percentages into fractions.

If someone says, “About 25% of all users click on the button,” say, “So about one in four,” and make a note of it. Everyone will nod their head in agreement, secretly impressed with your quick math skills.”

Encourage everybody to “take a step back.”

There’s a moment in all meetings when everyone starts talking. That’s when you say, “Guys, guys, guys, can we take a step back here?”

Ask, “Will this scale?”

That no one knows what this really means is beside the point. All the better. It’ll drive engineers crazy.

The rest of the tricks are here.

Additional Resources

How Not to Waste Time

Are You ‘Innovative’?