At the start of every working week, millions of people around the world get ready for something they do endlessly, joylessly and badly: a meeting.
The root of the rotten meeting is simple, says Madeleine de Hauke, a meeting coach and teacher in an Antwerp Management School. "We spend our lives and huge sums of money in meetings, but there's very little investment (投入) into helping people run them effectively."
Madeleine is correct. Running a meeting well takes skill. People need to know ahead why they are meeting, what they are supposed to achieve, who really needs to be there and how they should contribute. That sounds obvious but it is not, as anyone who has been to a pointless meeting knows. Yet meeting leaders are expected to learn all this on the job. I cannot remember ever being taught how to organize a meeting, and I have rarely had a job requiring me to do it.
I also like Madeleine's descriptions of what she calls the Meeting Monsters: people who destroy meetings with all sorts of annoying behaviors. There is the cruel off-topic speaker. The non-stop noise in the background. The confusing rambler (夸夸其谈者). The rude multi-tasker. The mute who says nothing but emails later to say what was decided will never work.
The trouble is, we are all meeting monsters sometimes, says Madeleine. A good meeting leader knows how to stop this behavior, or make sure it never starts by making it clear what will and won't be allowed.
A bad meeting is like a virus. By failing to produce good decisions it often requires another meeting to be held, then another and another. Luckily there is no need for a vaccine, just a bit more care and preparation, and an understanding that there is no shame in being taught how to lead a meeting well.
