April 14, 2024
April 14, 2024
The author puts down a couple of reasons for why ...
The author takes example of movies and draws parallel with meetings. Similar to how movies are interesting and gripping because they have a conflict at the centre, meetings need a similar element for every participant to care about it.
First, this element of conflict also needs to happen in the first 10 minutes of a meeting, called the hook. Participants need to be jolted a little during the first ten minutes of a meeting, so that they understand and appreciate what is at stake. This is very similar to how reporters write stories by adding the most essential information in the beginning.
Second, the one leading the meeting should also ensure all opinions and disagreements are heard and resolved by what the author calls as 'mining for conflict'. The leader should mine for people's inputs when they sense someone has a strong opinion but is reluctant to share. Leaders also have to be ready to manage the discomfort and clashing opinions and navigate towards resolution.
The single biggest structural problem facing leaders of meetings is the tendency to throw every type of issue that needs to be discussed into the same meeting, like a bad stew with too many random ingredients.
The author proposes that different topics and context each requires a different type of meeting. He proposes 4 types of meetings, each covering a specific context.
