Running Rambles - Why So LOUD?!

My best thinking time is often on top of a hill. Breathing heavy and covered in mud from the long trudge to the top - my mind is fully awake. In these moments many thoughts dance into my headspace, some to quickly dissolve and others to linger a while, playing over and over again and lodging themselves as something to take back down the hill with me.
Two nights ago, one such thought was, 'Why is being loud the way to do it?"

In our industry, I feel that we have always been asked to be louder. To dominate a meeting, to hold a crowd, to lead the conversation, to have answers and questions at the tip of your tongue. But surely no one can actually perform like that? Surely running client meetings and sessions with such expectations will only result in someone feeling they need to wing it, and just say what the client wants to hear.

We (Off Grid) have tried and failed to perform in this way, and soon came to realise that this little performance was in fact, serving no one. Our strength is in our quietness. When you're the person quite comfortable in their silence, you become an incredible listener. When you're not constantly thinking of the next thing you need to say, you actually look at the other person as they speak, you read their expression, their body language, their tone - where they falter, where they are expressive and animated. You actually listen.

Removing the need to ‘lead’ a meeting, and allow a client to just talk, with small guides and prompts from us gives room for them to meander in their words and ideas. They wonder in and out of meanings, they question and answer their own thoughts.

We listen.

We will rarely offer any answers, giving little opinion or judgement. Being ‘reactive’ has been a selling point of many businesses. ‘Small, agile and reactive’. When a website goes down, yes, you should be reactive - but when you’re digging into the inner workings of a business to establish their ethos and meaning, that is not a thing to be rushed. What's the rush? Why do we need to react? Surely an instant reaction will be shallow and obvious to have been presented in the 5 seconds after a client stops speaking?

We talk.

We have found that talking through and debriefing commits it to memory - saying out loud your understanding solidifies it. So after each meeting, we meet internally to repeat our understanding of the client needs. It is then, as everything begins to percolate and move that our creativity begins to fire up. Ideas and thoughts need time to settle and brew. They are not reactive, they are natural and intuitive and need time to grow.

So why is being loud still the only way we all know how?