Minutes are kept, hours are lost
'Sue', a good friend of Cogent Content, recently described a memorable exchange with her primary school-age children. It went something like this:
"What did you do in work today, Mummy?"
This innocent question prompted a painful moment of self-reflection.
"What did I do in work today?"
"Well dear, Mummy has been very busy in meetings all day."
Quick as a flash, the youngest child retorted: "What's a meeting, Mummy?"
"Well, that's a really good question…", replied a flustered Sue. "So good in fact that I'm not sure what to say…"; but then in a moment of clarity, she added tellingly, "I suppose it's somewhere where the minutes are kept, and the hours are lost!"
The youngest child giggled noisily. It's not clear if this indicated approval with Sue's answer. Fortunately, the older child had moved on to more important matters and was now demanding to know what was for tea.
Nonetheless, in that uncomplicated family moment, Sue had suddenly found her entire raison d'être laid bare by a three-year-old.
Her day had not been a productive one. "What are meetings for?" she mused quietly to herself as she switched on the kettle. Her witty spur of the moment response has seemed far too close to the truth.
Sue's story prompted us here at Cogent Content to work on a more suitable answer to her three-year-old's forensic inquiry. Here's what we came up with:
Meetings are where people go to make good decisions
What's the point of gathering a group of well-paid people around a table – or in the Zoom room – if the outcome is a bad decision or even no decision at all?
Let's peel away a few layers and clarify what we mean by 'decision'. The word has Latin roots. The most plausible definition suggests that the word's origin is based on the act of cutting something down. When we decide, we simply reduce the options available. By deciding what we aren't going to do, ultimately, we make a choice about what it is we will do.
Conventional thinking breaks the decision-making process down further:
Recognise and understand the challenge that requires a decision
Gather all the data required to reach the decision
Evaluate the various alternatives
Decide
Does this sound like real life? Sadly, not. I recently attended a meeting where the minutes were being dutifully recorded, yet the sand grains were trickling relentlessly through the hourglass to no apparent good effect. My mind wandered – it wasn't my meeting, and being mischievous, I carried out a rough calculation based on the estimated salaries of the people assembled in the room. I reckoned that the meeting was costing somewhere between three and four thousand pounds an hour. Would any of the dedicated, intelligent participants be able to explain the value that was being delivered through this costly use of their collective time? I had my doubts.
The experience prompted a team discussion around what constitutes a good decision, and we brainstormed a list.
The list took some fine-tuning, but we like it. It's a helpful tool for assessing meeting outcomes, and we're happy for readers to make use of it as they see fit.
Sue liked it too, but like us, she's a systems thinker, and she came back with an even trickier question: "How do you know when you've made a 'good' decision?".
Here at Cogent Content, we like difficult questions. This was a tough one. What is "good"? Who is the decision "good" for? Is "good" the same thing as "right", or does it mean something different? Sue's question had led us into a moral maze, and we were in urgent need of a compass.
In the heat of the moment, it can be hard to determine if a decision is good or bad. However, there are some warning signs to watch out for. Taking time for self-reflection (see our recent vlog) is crucial. Ask yourself these questions:
Where are my emotions right now; am I feeling intense, anxious, frustrated, tired or hungry?
Will I knowingly conceal any information from others in the meeting?
What is my 'gut feel' about the decision?
Am I moving too fast; have I honestly evaluated all the alternatives on offer?
How will I feel about the decision in ten minutes, in ten weeks or even ten years?
Good decisions are never assured, but it's likely that if you feel uneasy about the answer to one or more of these questions, you may be on the point of making a bad one.
Like Sue, we all spend far too much time 'in meetings', and some of these meetings can prove challenging. So here are some thoughts on improving the effectiveness of your meetings and increasing the chances of reaching a 'good' decision before you enter the meeting room.
We've taken our inspiration from 'The Too Difficult Box', a collection of short essays tackling some of the biggest challenges facing society. In his introduction, the Editor, former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, proposes a systematic approach to solving thorny problems. Our modified version for better meetings goes like this.
Why are we here? (What issue are we trying to fix?)
What is our preferred action?
What challenges does taking that action present?
What vested interests will we encounter if we go ahead?
Have we fully recognised the consequences for those who aren't in the room?
Do we really understand the complexities of the journey that we want to embark upon?
Do we possess the energy and creativity to take people with us on the journey and see it through?
Whenever we have a challenging meeting in the diary, we run through this checklist well before joining the room. Armed with the answers to these questions, we know that we are more likely to arrive at a 'good' decision that provides the correct answer to the right question. This process can really make the difference when meeting someone with serious decision-making power over your business, your project, or your career. Never ask for a meeting with an influential person unless you know exactly what you want them to do. At the same time, make sure that you have anticipated their probable pushback and have your response lined up and ready to go. At the very least, this will save you another meeting.
By applying this thinking, the minutes from your meetings will record good decisions that can save hours of valuable business time. So we think you should give it a go.
Meetings frequently discuss change. Change is an inescapable part of modern life; Cogent Content understands this. We draw on a wide range of business, creative and scientific tools to study and decode the complex systems that shape the world. We unlock the intelligent thinking that supports great content creation, engaging stories, and purposeful communication.
Get in touch if you think we can help.