So here I am, prone, trying to keep my mind calm before getting wheeled into theatre. My op was being done under a local nerve block anaesthetic so I would be wide awake throughout. I wasn’t actually super nervous but there is inevitably some level of anxiety. And everyone around is sporting masks and gowns. And the poor woman next to me was crying and being comforted by the theatre nurses. And you know (damn you internet) that some bloke*** will be slicing your poor old transverse carpal ligament in two. And did I say I was wide awake?
Cripes…
This called for meditation and visualisation. I gave up on a standard body scan meditation because I just kept being drawn back to my hand – which was feeling decidedly weird as the nerve block was at full effect. So my thoughts turned to some exciting work coming up that I’m really looking forward to; I always do some visualisation prior to delivery, just not normally lying down, wearing a green tunic that gapes at the back. The delegates are all on potential partner track and I love that the delegates are always keen and engaged. And of course they will all do more business once they get the skills, which is of course essential to them.
As I worked my way through visualising the programme, I got to the section about “listen and learn” in the client meeting. I am now in theatre and the surgeon is beavering away on my hand while I struggle to focus on business development but I decide to run through the wide variety of good questions that we often fail to ask. Prompted to think laterally delegates always come up with brilliant questions and invariably confess that in reality they often tend to play it safe and don’t ask the really insightful, useful and impressive questions they should.
At this point my meditative visualisation was interrupted by the surgeon nudging and asking what is undoubtedly the most bizarre but wonderful question I have ever been asked in 48 years.
“Would you like to see inside your hand, Michael?”
Now that’s a belter!
And my answer? Nah…
I politely declined. Actually I’d have been fascinated to see inside a hand, just not mine. Put carpal tunnel operation into google and see one for yourself.
So roll on my next Rainmaker programme sessions and thanks to my hand surgeon, I’m planning to go even wilder than normal on the brainstorming session around questions at the “listen and learn” phase.
***Thank you Mr Mark Broadbent – consultant trauma & orthopaedic surgeon and creative questioner extraordinaire. Some bloke indeed.
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about the author
Michael Fleming is our Head of KWC Legal. If you would like to know more about this subject, drop him an email and we will be in touch.
