MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MEETINGS
BY
JOHN MERCHANT
In the early to middle years of my working life, I attended hundreds of meetings: sales
meetings, production meetings, product development meetings, client meetings, and on
and on. Unlike a lot of my colleagues, I enjoyed them, especially if they were well run,
and most of them were. It was often an opportunity to reflect on progress or lack of it,
and to gain a perspective on the way ahead; to assign tasks and to hold people
accountable for completing those tasks.
Some of the best meetings I experienced were chaired by the head of the last company I
worked for in England. He is a scholarly man; gentle, soft spoken in manner, and
patient to a fault. Through much of the meetings he seemed to fade into the
background, until we almost forgot he was running the show. But then, at some
propitious point, he would re-enter the proceedings with his almost perfunctory “Quite
so, quite so,” and then sum up, pulling the often disparate points of view into a cohesive
whole. It was a treat to observe.
Later in my life, I found myself chairing meetings more often than simply attending
them, and I tried to employ all the lessons I had learned from observing my employer in
England. Aside from meetings connected with my work, many were held under the
aegis of volunteer organizations such as the United Way charity, The Red Cross, The
Chamber of Commerce, local museums etc. These were some of the most difficult
meetings I have experienced.
Volunteerism is a fine thing, and much of the good that happens in the world is drawn
from this well, but volunteers are not the easiest group of people to deal with. Some, not
all, have the attitude that because they are volunteering, they have complete autonomy
over what they do, and when, how and if they do it. To add to my difficulties, the
membership of some of the committees I chaired was deliberately selected from highly
visible, notable people. Thus I had TV news anchormen, TV station managers, directors
of hospital management boards and so on.
These people, of necessity, had strong characters and were very much aware of their
position in society. Their agreement to join a committee was not least related to
enhancing their own image. The task of holding this group of prima donnas together,
and harnessing their egos to achieve some useful objectives was a Herculean task that
many times was beyond me. It was in this period that I decided meetings weren’t fun
any more.
Unfortunately, although I could opt out of my voluntary activities, I couldn’t shrug off
the obligations of my employment. The business meetings I attended from that time on
seemed less and less enjoyable and productive. How much of this was related to the
changing climate of the corporate world, and how much to my disaffection with
meetings per se, I’m not able to determine. But it seemed that committee members
became more and more confrontational and less willing or able to follow good meeting
protocols.
When I quit the corporate world I vowed that I was done with committees for ever. I
have been successful in this resolve, but now find myself unwillingly having to deal with
committees as part of the lifestyle I have chosen. In the USA, condominium living has
become pervasive. The attraction for most people, me included, is that, as condo
owners, we are absolved from any responsibility for the maintenance of the outside of
our dwellings or the surrounding landscaping.
The down side to such an arrangement is that the owners relinquish direct control over
what is done to their dwelling and its surroundings. These decisions are made by a
condo owner’s management board, elected by homeowners, who work in conjunction
with an outside management company that executes the board’s directives, or not,
according to how effective they are. I have reluctantly attended some of these meetings,
and was appalled at the way they were conducted.
It seems that the board members and the attendees are made up of people who have,
throughout their working careers, been deprived of the opportunity to attend meetings
or serve on committees, and, man-oh-man are they going to make up for lost time! The
participants and chairpersons seem never to have heard of Robert’s Rules, or even of
common courtesy. They digress, ramble on, reiterate their points of view ad nauseam,
talk across one another, and only occasionally arrive at an action point.
I sit in my seat and squirm, and occasionally have had to leave the room out of
embarrassment. I’m not at all comfortable with the knowledge that these groups are
literally the custodians of the several thousands of dollars I have invested in my home
sweet home. Perhaps I should call a meeting. Aaaaaaaaaargh!