Does your organization have a Mihir Sen?

After almost two days of struggling with the problem, Arun Gupta, Principal, settled back in his chair
in the Faculty Room. This was one of the third long meeting on this issue. What once seemed to be a
clear-cut question was now hopelessly muddled. As the rest of the staff filed back to their places, he
thought to himself. “Maybe the tea-break will have helped us sort things out.” He glanced down at
his notepad with its two columns of phrases and figures headed “pros” and “cons” and at the bottom
a giant question mark, “It’s a strange thing about this group,” he thought, “how brilliant and
imaginative we are when we’re working alone, but as soon as we come together to work on a
common problem, we fall apart.”

Tom Mathais had remained in his chair working through the tea-break and now was ready with a
new proposal. As Tom began, Arun listened with forced concentration. He was tired and from the
looks on others’ faces, they were tired too. There was so much work for him in his office – important
work – but all was at a standstill until they could come to some agreement on this problem. Tom’s
idea sounded pretty solid. There were some weak points in it but at least it looked like the most
sensible proposal so far – at least a place to start.

Suddenly from across the table came Mihir Sen’s voice, “Oh no,” thought Arun to himself. “I’ll bet we
are going to have another story of how Mihir tried this when he was working at the Institute of
Science in Bangalore.”

“You remember about five years ago,” Mihir began, “when the Institute of Science was trying to
decide whether…” Arun slumped down in his chair; Tom leaned back, and stared blankly out of the
window. You could almost hear everyone groan. Some frowned; some coughed; some looked at their
watches. No one looked at Mihir. All looked pained and frustrated.

Thrice in private Arun had spoken to Mihir about his habit of interrupting and the waste of time and
antagonism his storied were causing. Evidently there had been no effect.

“Good grief,” thought Arun. “Is that man stupid? I must have heard this story fifteen times. One story
after another! That man just irritates me. He’s got one of the best brains in the university but he can
so annoy you with those interruptions and long, windy, irrelevant stories that you just stop listening
after a while. No wonder people don’t want to come to these meetings. Waste of time, most of them
say, and one big reason is Mihir – Mihir and his wordy, windy and worthless stories. Doesn’t he
realize this?”

Tom managed skilfully to turn the discussion back to the point of his proposal by saying, “Mihir, what
you’ve been saying agrees for the most part with my thinking. Let me see if I can build on some of
the points you have been making.” And with that he valiantly attempted to get the group back to the
train of thought he had been developing. Within two minutes Mihir was back at him. “Now just one
minute, Tom. That is exactly what Malhotra and I did at Bangalore. Malhotra,” he said longingly, “now
there was a principal…”

“That does it; this is the limit,” muttered Arun to himself.

Instructions:

There are two parts to this exercise: Part I and Part II.

Exercise

If you were Arun Gupta, which of the following responses would be yours?

Individual
1. “All right, Mihir, now that we’ve heard from you, do you
suppose we could explore Tom’s proposal in more detail?”

2. “Will you please keep quiet and give someone else a chance to
talk?”

3. “Mihir, that was an interesting point. Now I think we’re much

clearer about your thoughts. Who don’t we leave it up to the
group to decide whom they want to hear from next?”

4. “Good point, Mihir, but why don’t we give Tom some more
time to discuss his proposal?”

5. “For heaven’s sake, Mihir, shut up!”

6. “Mihir, these meetings are going on and on and I’m feeling

more and more anxious as they do – at our inability to work
more effectively together, and because of all the work piling up
on my desk. Then, too, when you interrupt with story after
story, I’m feeling annoyed and frustrated. I’m just puzzled that
you don’t see how you’re disrupting the group’s progress.”

7. “Mihir, your interruptions and stories are irritating me and

frustrating our progress.”

8. Other (specify) …..