Working from home or at office is the breeding ground for back-to-back meetings and keeping yourself busy or trying to show your busyness. I remember an incident shared by my friend about a meeting.
“After a sumptuous lunch, on a hot, Friday afternoon, into an AC room for a telecon with two of my colleagues and our boss, in Mumbai, I realised, after sometime, that the meeting does not concern me much. I told my colleagues to ‘continue’ (on mute) and said, ‘Call me, when required’.
With my head down on the table, I fell asleep. One of my colleagues, shook me up.
The boss asked me, ‘So when do you think we can complete this?’ I had absolutely no idea of what was going on, and confidently said, ‘Sir, in a month, it will be ready.’
Boss said, ‘Come on, be realistic. This is not possible.’ I confidently defended myself and the meeting ended. After the meeting I asked my colleagues, what was he asking for? When they explained, I realised the task was impossible to be done in the next three months at least.”
We meet, trying to resolve problems or come to a consensus, discuss/debate, rarely ending with a solution or meeting the objective.
Meetings hit bang on at triviality and issues that rarely matter.
We participate, without being fully aware of the agenda or the issues and sometimes ‘just’ because it is on our calendar.
It could be even more challenging with ‘ramblers’, ‘bores’ and ‘show-offs’ with attempts to hijack, pulling people down, drifting away and telling people ‘what you know’ than ‘what they should know’. Attendees often contribute, because they want to establish themselves as being ‘familiar’ than appear ‘ignorant’.
Parkinson’s Law of Triviality fairly explains this. We spend a lot of time, discussing issues which are trivial.
If a meeting has been called for a $10-million contract, a $300 bicycle shed, and $20 for refreshments, the million-dollar contract would pass through most quickly with the least discussion, because it is technical, a ‘big’ decision, and everyone ‘assumes’ that all others would have done their groundwork.
The bigger challenge comes with the bicycle shed, because everyone knows something or the other, has their point of opinion.
Finally, the last discussion on the refreshments happens on what it is, where it should be bought from or made.
It occupies 75 percent of the total time, ending with a need to have more information to finally take a decision. If this sounds familiar, here is what you should be doing.
First, try and figure out the issue. Second, do enough groundwork before you enter the room. Third, stop chipping in with your own problems, or things you know. Discuss things that matter.
Principal – Education, Training and Assessment at Infosys Ltd and author of The Gift of the Gab: The Subtle Art of Communicating