The Elusive Decision Meeting
Which meeting really matters?
The boss announces an important budget meeting for next Tuesday. He asks all of
you to prepare to present your budget requests. You spend all week long gathering
the information you will need to request the funds your department will depend
on for the upcoming year. When the meeting begins, one of your colleagues is
absent and two others announce they were tied up all week and did not have time
to prepare. They ask, can we just spend the time setting the stage for what is needed? You
are disappointed but agree to postpone the decision making until next week. You
spend some time tuning up your information, but have to spend most of your time
catching up on the work you deferred while you were preparing last week. The
second meeting date arrives and again there are distractions, excuses, and pleas
to postpone again. Finally the third meeting takes place, you are unable to
attend, the budget decisions are made while you are absent, and they eat your
lunch.
When are we just marking time and when is the real meeting when the real
decisions are made?
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