Meeting Madness - A Meeting where Everything Went Wrong

Meeting Madness - A Meeting where Everything Goes Wrong

I attended a meeting last week for an organisation where I volunteer and as I sat there I saw, played out in front of me, every ‘mistake’ that can happen during a meeting:

No focused agenda
People interrupting each other

Irrelevant Information

People bringing up completely irrelevant information that had been dealt with two meetings before

Someone trying to push their own personal agenda on everyone else
Hostility between two members of staff
Eyeball rolling (catch Tracy Ullman’s ultimate take on eyeball rolling)
Side conversations
Talking ‘round and ‘round and ‘round and going nowhere

Inappropriate

Someone throwing a bombshell that poleaxed most of us because it was completely unexpected and inappropriate.

All this within the first fifteen minutes.

Thoughts going through my head ranged from,

“Oh, for goodness sake, do we need to hear this again?”

“I can’t bear the whispering.”

“Oh brother, where did that come from?”

“What the hell am I doing here?”

It was the last thought that broke the trance I seem to have fallen into.

Why Was I There

I was there because

I believe in the organisation
I have a lot to contribute
I enjoy most of my fellow-volunteers

and yet there I was feeling as though I was walking through treacle and crucial decisions weren’t being made.

So I intervened

Not in an aggressive, frustrated way (which is what I was feeling), but with a couple of tools right out of the Impact Factory ‘play-list’ for having more productive meetings.

First Initiative

First, I tackled the bombshell (because I could see that people were struggling with how to respond) by commenting that we didn’t have enough information to adequately discuss it.

I then suggested a small group of people look at what had been proposed and prepare a briefing for the rest of the group.

I volunteered myself and suggested one other person, who agreed.

Second Initiative

Second, I made a slight joke by saying that we were all so passionate about what we were discussing that we’d clearly lost focus and if we didn’t get down to the nitty-gritty, we’d be there till midnight.

Third Initiative

Third, I directed some questions to the Chair which forced him to stay the course without making him wrong for not doing so all along.

They were really small, simple things that worked because they were subtle, they weren’t challenging and they all had a tangible end result. We have a whole lot of other stuff up our sleeves for helping meetings become something you want to do, rather than being a real drag that causes your heart to sink.

Meetings are an essential part of our working and personal lives and they’re a great way to bring people together, get everyone on-song, hammer out negotiations, manage difficulties and conflicts.

Since not everyone will want to play ball in order for that to happen, it’s essential that someone (you, for instance) makes the decision – even if you aren’t running the meeting – to ensure it stays on track and not go off the rails.