Into the Heart of Meetings

The great economist Thomas Sowell once said “people who enjoy meetings shouldn’t be in charge of anything,” and I tend to agree. When you go into the average meeting, people end up discussing every inane nuance of what paper to put in the printer, while you’re barely willing to give it five minutes. This book shows you how to structure a meeting, so that you don’t waste time or annoy the members present.

There’s a wonderful chapter here on international meetings, where you have different attitudes on what to expect. The authors tell me something I never thought of; Italians will not stop just because their time is up. They will keep on going, and tempters will flair. To Scandinavians, however, this is grossly unacceptable. Another example of a culture clash is a meeting where the mayor is late, then calls to say she’ll be later, then calls to say she probably won’t make it. This might not seem like problem; after all, just start anyway, and the mayor can speak at the end. The problem is that in some countries, they can’t start until they get a “greeting from the authorities.” In Korea and Japan, showing up late is not acceptable at all. It’s the equivalent of picking your nose in public.

The authors give advice on how to arrange the seats, the tables, and the schedule. Some meetings do well as round table discussions, and others, especially when you have visual presentations, need a long table where everyone can see ahead. Then we get to the role of the host (or facilitator) who’s in charge of making sure everyone has their turn to speak. You don’t want a meeting turning into a free-for-all or a shouting match, especially when you’re on a deadline.

The funniest thing in this book was in the chapter on international meetings. A conference goes overtime, and everything’s late, but Italian attendants all walk out when it’s time for their free pasta lunch. You can waste time, cheat, and be rude in Italy, but the mealtimes are sacrosanct!

This book is more than a guide to structuring a meeting. It’s a funny book on the way different peoples communicate.