The Meeting Before the Meeting
Published
Disclosure: Original commentary from this publication. Examples are illustrative.
A calendar invitation can reserve an hour without establishing a purpose. By the time everyone joins, the first part of the meeting is spent discovering why the conversation exists. The people were available. The decision was not prepared.
Preparation should begin with what the meeting is allowed to settle. Is the group choosing a direction, testing an assumption or exchanging information? Each purpose calls for different material and a different kind of participation.
Send the question early For an illustrative creative review, a useful invitation might ask participants to choose between two openings for the same audience. It would include the brief, the two versions and the constraint that makes the choice necessary. A request for general thoughts leaves the scope much wider.
The distinction affects who needs to attend. Someone with authority over the decision may be essential. Someone whose expertise is needed for one factual question may be able to answer it beforehand. Attendance should follow the work, rather than become a substitute for assigning it.
A short note can expose a meeting that is premature. If the options cannot yet be described, the team may need preparation time instead of a group discussion. Canceling or narrowing that meeting can be a responsible use of everyone's attention.
Make disagreement usable A meeting should give objections somewhere specific to land. Ask which requirement an option fails, what information is missing or what consequence deserves more weight. Disagreement framed that way can change the work. An unsupported preference leaves the team choosing between personalities.
This does not mean every creative choice can be reduced to a score. Taste and judgment remain part of the process. The aim is to distinguish them from factual constraints so that people know which kind of disagreement they are having.
If new information changes the question, acknowledge that change. There is little value in reaching a decisive answer to a problem the group no longer has.
Leave with a record The closing minutes deserve protection. State the decision, the person responsible for carrying it out and the unresolved issue that could change it. Give the next deliverable a recognizable form. A promise to circle back is difficult to verify.
A written recap should be brief enough that participants will read it and precise enough that someone absent can understand the result. It should record disagreement that remains material, rather than manufacture unanimity.
The preparation and the recap belong to the same discipline. One makes the question clear before people gather. The other makes the answer useful after they leave. Between them, the meeting has a chance to become work rather than an interruption to it.