Why Am I Starving?
Why am I starving?
I recently spent a couple of days manning a stand at a legal training event…
It’s part of the job – and whilst there is a lot of time spent standing up and not doing all that much, there are spells when my mind is working ten-to-the-dozen as you try and answer what appears to be a simple question to the Asker, but I need to translate the often technical answer in to some kind of layman-speak that the Asker is going to understand can be challenging.
I like the idea of going to a place where existing clients and potential clients are and seeing if anyone is prepared to speak to me. Usually I sit in an office waiting for the phone to ring or hoping to receive an email enquiry, i.e. someone is contacting me to engage me with a specific (or sometimes General) question.
So the idea that I could go to the market instead of waiting for it to come to me – has a certain appeal.
Of course I could get any kind of question – something about IT in general, a LawWare user might see the stand and remember that question that only comes up occasionally and wander over to casually enquiry ‘when you are in a case file, how do you produce a list of all your time?’ OK, in this example the answer is easy but it’s not always the case. Sometimes I will have to take a note of a question and the Asker, and get the Help Desk to get back to them. I don’t know everything and I’m not afraid to say so. But there is a difference between Knowing and Recalling – I do sometimes Know an answer but can’t Recall it when I need to, this is most infuriating (probably something to do with your great age – I hear you cry!). But I’ll make a note and get back to them. Sometimes I recall the answer just after I’ve seen them turn the corner and go out of sight – arrrggghhhh! But I have my laptop and internet connection so I can probably email them there and then. They’ll probably get the email on their phone, so may come back to see me later.
I may be standing in a hotel for two days but I am still connected to the office. Emails are coming to both my laptop and mobile phone and I can respond to them. I can look up client records on my laptop (mobile phone screens are too small – in my opinion). I don’t take my Internet phone with me on these occasions – but I do when I am working from home. Obviously I’ve got my mobile phone if something urgent comes up (it didn’t – I have good colleagues).
So if I summarise, it feeds the mind;
- It’s good to go out and meet your clients or organise an event for a number of them to attend (to meet you).
- You can still be connected (you won’t miss anything important).- You learn more about your clients’ needs and desires (good for business development).
- You get time to think about other things when you’re not at the coal face / home front (good for other business development).
Downside?
I quickly get used to the on-tap coffee and tea, biscuits, little cakes, the breakfast, the lunch and that as fast as I consume it – it just gets replenished!! You are right – that isn’t the downside. The downside is the day after the event – when I have that feeling of being totally famished; all through that very very long day.
Although I do have a few interesting calls to make …
Liking your differing of “knowledge”, and “recall”. Occasionally scraps of knowledge surface unbidden, say, from a history lesson at school in 1960something, Other occasions, perhaps a client asking a relatively straight forward professional question, really wouldn’t be interested in which year Clive of India became administrator of Bengal…..