Meetings are not ready-to-wear outfits

As the meeting came to an end, Mr. Somayaji requested the members to stay a while and have another round of coffee. “I will be back in a few minutes with the minutes so that you can sign the minutes before you leave. We don’t have to delay things any further.” The members agreed and waited. As Mr. Somayaji walked into his room accompanied by his deputy, he called his secretary and said “Please bring those Minutes of the meeting you have typed.” His deputy was surprised “Sir, Should I draft the minutes?”

“No need Mr. Ratan, I have already done it even before the meeting. I know what will be the course of the discussions on the agenda points. After all, we must lead the committee to our goals. Isn’t it?”

Mr. Ratan stood dumbfounded.

Meetings are of several types and for several reasons. But in some organizations, the heads tend to pre-fix the decisions of the meetings and lead the agenda towards their set goal. The members are also individually informed about the expectations and their help is sought in facilitating the decisions.

Bland discussions to spend the time and ticking of the agenda points in sequence becomes more a ceremony rather than an intellectual treat. The meetings get designed as ‘Ready-to-wear outfits’ good enough for immediate use and implementation. Oftentimes, the people heading such meetings tend to be influencers, competent enough to force their views on others and disallow any dissent.

Mr. Ambisht knew the scale and scope of the agenda of the meeting. He was aware of some difficult issues which might have conflicting views. As the chair, he allowed long discussions for each of the agenda points in the beginning and as the time schedule for the meeting was getting tighter, he observed “I think we are running short of time for discussion on the rest of the agenda points. So please put in your views briefly so that we cover the complete agenda.” It was indeed a strategy to deprive members for adequate discussion on some of these difficult agenda points. Basically Mr. Ambisht was an escapist and was not trained to accept difference in views and allow a free and fair discussion on issues. Such meetings are quite unfair to the participants and often make participants lose faith both on the individual and the organization.

The purpose and objective of meetings is to celebrate the combined wisdom of the members of a group in formulating, structuring, articulating and leading an idea, a thought or a process. The constitution of a committee is always to ensure that there is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional view of a given perception and it is examined in totality ethically and values are added for effective and productive delivery of the idea under consideration.

Mr. Raghav, while representing his company in a meeting was honest enough to say “I am sorry I have no idea about the subject under discussion. I was advised to be present so that the meeting doesn’t suffer for want of quorum. Otherwise, I go by any decision the rest of you take.” Well, people like Raghav are more an apology for the meeting. The deputations of the representatives for the meeting should be done with adequate briefing or at least who would be able to participate meaningfully though they may not be masters of the field. Discussions and decisions of such meetings will reflect poor quality of decisions and could on many occasions be biased.

Tailor made decisions for agenda points in any meeting may increase the comfort level of the organizers and the organizations, but defy and defeat the true spirit of intellectual vibrancy and are indicators of stagnant learning curves of these organizations.

Mr. Suresh Chandra always is a vocal member of any meeting. But if one examines the pattern of his participation in meetings, it could be easily understood that his singular objective is to totally oppose and create a roadblock for healthy discussions. He scripts his presentation to create a brand of himself, though negative, to ensure that his presence is noted. Such people cause “Fatigue” in discussions and members leave with an invisible pain in their thought profiles.

Meetings are not “Ready-to-wear outfits” … where thoughts and opinions measured, cut to sizes, good enough to fit scheduled customers are carefully incorporated into a group of minds to cause an acceptance. Discussions, however painful they may be, are indeed seeds for organizational learning, in smaller or larger measure.