I Want What He’s Having

As much as I hate meetings, what I really can’t stand is sycophantic bleating around the table in support of whomever has the biggest title. This morning I discovered there’s a term for it: Echo Management.

It happens anytime you gather more than 3 people in a room, but especially when there’s a piece of creative on the table. One smart and aggressive person (that’s why he spoke first) lays out a sensible comment, and then it is recycled in several different voices around the table. Nobody adds any texture, or insight. They simply listen to the same smart idea reiterated in their own voices. One by one, the notion gets “echoed” around the room until everyone’s recycled the thought and heard themselves utter it.

I sat in a big meeting at a big ad agency a few years ago, and watched echo management backfire as 13 executives rallied around a piece of creative, only to have the head of the agency rip the idea apart. He spoke last, of course, and then sat back and watched the echoists flip their position and denounce the work. I recall actually laughing out loud at this phenomenon, a reaction that nobody echoed.

Russ Klein, the CMO at Burger King, talks about his passion for “fierce conversations.” Independent thought, and conviction, are prized commodities in his meetings. Echos are quickly identified for what they are, as are the echoists. It makes for some short meetings, and a lot less mouths flapping around the table. Not to mention more cookies for the independent thinkers . . .