There are meetings, and then there are meetings.
There are meetings, and then there are meetings.
One type of meeting allows everyone to say something. These are typically longer than necessary and could be viewed as a failure of management. That is because most of this category of meetings are undisciplined speaking sessions. They include but are not limited to concepts that could be concisely summarized in emails or reports, grievances that can be handled one-on-one between colleagues or a supervisor and their subordinates, and meetings for meeting’s sake that occur on a fixed schedule whether or not anything justifies the time spent on the meeting. These meetings very often leave people with little to nothing gained and significant time lost. It also gives a false sense of security by making the people in attendance feel as if they’ve accomplished something by physically going to the meeting when, in fact, they’ve not only not accomplished anything but they’ve been set back because their time was used poorly. This idea continues to exist from professional music rehearsals to the corporate world in most regards. It gets missed because the premise of music (as well as traditional business) is not rooted in results but, rather, participation. Participation is great in kindergarten, preparatory school, and/or even something as serious as life in the human race. But in the art of business, it is the quickest way to circular reasoning leading nowhere but stillness. Most people are afforded this privilege because most of the working force is not required to attain a daily tangible result. Rather, the average expectation is proof of participation — even if that participation is an aimless activity with no clear, small goal. I have deemed this “The Research Institute”. My concept of The Research Institute (which I developed after dropping out of college in my third year) is one that goes beyond the construct of the physical. It is heavily focused on the cultural aspect of the culture of activity and participation over the survival skills of critical thinking and tangible, daily result.
The other type of meeting allows something to be said that gives clarity to every individual’s main objective. It measurably advances knowledge, process, and/or cohesion. It relays need-to-know information that cannot be communicated in another way. It builds community. It achieves fortitude in a tangible result. This result gives clear, instructive, tangible direction. None of us know when the last decade of our life is, so it is most important to make any meeting a meeting of substance as time is not just precious but unknown to all that participate in this life.
