Are meetings in a corporate environment seen as rituals? Can we really get something out of these meetings? How?
https://www.leadershipandchangemagazine.com/why-do-you-have-meetings/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_recent_activity_details_shares%3BmQ%2BoqcRtS5mmbBV5vewZQg%3D%3D#.WnofygWcAbw.linkedin
I asked myself the same question many times after attended internal or external meetings. I tend to think that they are more rituals than preliminary steps in taking concrete decisions and solving some problems. My own oppinion is that we get nothing else than spending money. Many programs are designed for such events but the final reported results are just the meetings with their high costs, nothing else.
Regular meetings have important and very useful beyond progress reports of supervised employees and ad-hoc decision making. The question is about these meetings and not workshops or project meetings, since those have selected participants and agenda. So, the contribution of the regular group meeting of co-workers and their bosses are the followings (non-comprehensive list):
- the obvious ones: the supervisor gets information about progress and the employees get the cascaded information from the top, translated to their language, e.g. the real meaning of a new policy,
- interactive, there is an opportunity to raise voice and also ask opinions,
- make decisions, alter from previous decisions, new tasks, understand risks.
- the less obvious ones, and maybe this is why these rituals are important. Comfort the supervisor and coworkers (the team),
- get information from others' work in the same team, improve efficiency significantly. Recognize synergies and continue the discussions in smaller groups. Share previous experience for helping each other. Streamline communication with the outer world (I talked to John Doe and we agreed on that, so, you maybe...)
- Solid point in the calendar what helps to be organized,
- Preparation for changes or knowing there is no change expected,
- Legal compliance, discuss HSE, quality and liability issues.
The regular meeting does not replace ad-hoc meetings, workshops, face-to-face and project meetings. In the planned agenda this should be considered, and the meeting should not turn to something else from the list before.
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