Thoughts

Recently, I've moved to a new team, the biggest team that I've ever worked with. And of course, lots of meetings.

Fortunately, I'm the youngest engineer on the team, so I have fewer meetings than higher-level engineers to do my coding stuff.

Wait a sec, should I use "Unfortunately" instead?

Meetings are organized to make people work more efficiently, to work together and win together, not to let people feel like they are wasting their time.

There are some certain disadvantages of meetings. But on the other side, I choose to take advantage of them.

I can practice communicating efficiently in a meeting, training good explanation skills, and asking better questions.

My boss knows how to make the right questions in a project-specific meeting. He asks questions that help me figure out my REAL challenge. He asks questions to let me solve it myself, not himself by giving advice.

A little more asking people questions, a little less telling people what to do.

Discovery

A good question I found yesterday: "And what else?".

When people are talking about their stuff, even when they stop talking for a while, don't ask rhetorical questions, advice-giving questions like "Have you thought of ...?", "What about ...?", "Did you consider ...?".

Instead, ask them, "And what else?" or sort of. I usually see them come up with a very idea similar to what I'm going to "suggest".

Stop showing off, telling people about my brilliant ideas before sharing their ones.

Stop taking control, acting like I know the rest, and wrapping up the conversation.

Scientifically, this question helps people achieve a higher level of thinking, deepen their understanding of problems, and promote collaboration.

This is not humility; this is the art.