36. 10 Tricks to Look Attentive

In class (Office Dynamics, Paper III – Working in Team)

The teacher: “Team meetings are boring but unavoidable. Most of these meetings are quite unproductive except for the last five minutes, and yet you have to sit through them for hours.

“The important thing is to look attentive.

“That does not mean you have to pay attention. You just need to follow some simple guidelines to appear interested and involved while spending the most of the time daydreaming.

“Here are ten useful tricks.”

On the board

(Do the following intermittently, e.g. Once every five minutes or so)

1. Nod and scribble some nonsense on your notepad. Use a lot of symbols and abbreviations. Then lean back thoughtfully. Repeat after five minutes. Nod, note, lean back.

2. Say, “Good idea, but we need to think this through.”

3. Furrow your brows and look intently at the speaker.

4. Suddenly lean forward and look for some old notes in your notepad. Then lean back again.

5. Shake your head slowly with a skeptical smile.

6. Ask, “Can you pass me the water?”

7. When you suddenly realize that everyone is agreeing to some proposal, do not ask anything, but look unconvinced. If asked, say, “I am not that sure. Anyway, let’s give it a try.”

8. If instead of the above you wake up to find everybody rejecting a proposal, say, “Let us not rush to conclusions.”

9. Say suddenly, “But isn’t that…”. Then stop and say, “Ummm…no sorry.”

10. Say, “But we need to think about the deadline too.”

“Keep using the above at 3-5 minutes intervals and you should be able to do just fine.”