Allan checks his calendar as the elevator doors close. He has a significant proposal to get back to the client and mentally curses that his calendar is as blocked out as a year 8’s school timetable.
The Stand-up kicks off first, with each of his team checking in on what they are working on this week. The banter is jovial. The content is a double up for half the team who are working on the same tender document or can see it on the Teams chat. The other half aren’t engaged enough to ask for clarity on all the acronyms lest it make the meeting longer.
Next is a regional sales meeting where Ben, Leah and Mike are vying for a Golden Globe with random interjections designed to give the appearance they have read the briefing papers. Carol and her furrowed brow are texting her teenage daughter under the desk. A passionate discussion about costs ensues with lots of examples and no apparent outcome. A meeting after the meeting will sort that out.
SLT is scheduled for early afternoon and the MD tables a possible restructure. A fascinating set of perspectives are shared that would make Socrates proud but no one really knows the exact question they are there to answer so it comes across as a mind map of the thought disordered. The MD mentally likens the conversation to trying to eat snot with a knife and fork and starts to wish he hadn’t asked. He decides it is best referred to a working party. All leave exhausted - affirming that life is busy busy busy.
And so these are the days of our lives. The reality is, in spite of so many other forms of communication, task tracking, doc sharing, MS Teamsing and Virtual working, we have persisted with meetings that create a black hole in most of our lives. 8 people in a two hour meeting needs 16 hours plus of benefit to be generated to break even.
The truth, it’s part of the lost art of transformative conversations in a society that transacts, is anxious about difficult conversations and has more than its fair share of people-pleasers and conflict avoiders unlikely to say what they are really thinking.
Redesigning exactly what we want to achieve not only from meetings, but from each of the items, having a matrix for what conversation structure will best meet that need, and having a disciplined approach to thermal imaging only those areas of discussion related to the goal takes discipline.
It’s like a training camp for the special forces and when teams get it right, organisational outputs, in a fraction of the time, are profound.
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