Pointless Meetings

Forming or holding an opinion is easy. Doing the analysis to form that opinion is…well, a lot of work. Which is why most people don’t bother.

Ok, you knew that already. After all, who hasn’t gone into a meeting where nobody has read that doc/memo that is going to be discussed? Meetings where people just go along with the flow. Of course, they will come up with that odd statement that makes it look that they did give it some thought.

It’s frustrating to go to such meetings: if you don’t prepare, you know it is a waste of time. If you do prepare but others don’t, it is again a waste of time. Damned if you, damned if you don’t.

Is there a way out? Perhaps, this Farnam Street blog found the solution:

“If you push too far you won’t be at the next meeting because everyone knows you’ll do the work and that means they know that by inviting you they’ll be forced to think about things a little more, to anticipate arguments, etc. In short, inviting you means more work for them.”

Of course, sometimes that tactic backfires because the others decide to call you because you will do the work! But regardless of the risk, that entire article is terrific (I can so relate to every point it makes), so do read it.