The Team Meeting

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It was Friday afternoon, and the marketing team was in the meeting room for their weekly meeting. Dana had prepared a proposal for a new customer survey, and she was nervous. She had worked on it for two weeks. But when it was her turn to speak, the manager, Mr. Collins, looked at his phone.

"Okay, Dana," he said without looking up. "Go ahead." She explained her idea in two minutes. When she finished, nobody said anything. Then Paul, the sales director, said, "Thanks, Dana. Now, as I was saying before, we need to reduce our costs." The conversation moved on, and her proposal disappeared.

Dana could have stayed quiet, but she decided to try again. "Sorry to interrupt," she said politely. "If I could just add something, it's directly related to costs." Everyone turned to look at her. "With all due respect, I think that a survey could save the company money. Last year, we spent eighty thousand dollars on a campaign that our customers didn't like."

Mr. Collins put his phone down. "Go on," he said. "Let me build on that," she continued. "If we ask our customers what they want before we make a campaign, we can avoid spending money on the wrong things. Would it be possible to try it with a small group first? It would cost less than two thousand dollars."

There was a short silence. Paul nodded slowly. "That's actually a good point," he said. "Could you send us the numbers by Monday?" "Of course," said Dana. She felt her shoulders relax for the first time that afternoon. "I'll have them ready by nine."

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Collins waited until the others had left. "Dana," he said, "I'm sorry I wasn't listening the first time. Would you mind repeating the whole proposal on Monday, to the full team? I think we missed something important." "I'd be happy to," said Dana, and this time, she was smiling.