by Catherine Hedgecock THE MEETING MALAISE Published December 9, 1996 Other Columns by Catherine Hedgecock	What's the deal with meetings? Nobody can seem to run a good one. Everyone complains about them. And for the most part, very little of substance gets done in them (if you exclude socializing with colleagues and meeting your bagel quota). No matter what type of business, part of the country, or stage of enlightenment a company is in, it's nearly a given that meetings will be deadly. There are a lot of reasons for this. Managers can often be a big part of the problem. One friend of mine had to attend a weekly meeting with her peers and their manager to go over results and projections. Whoever was most behind on results would get "reamed" -- receiving a serious, top-of-the-lungs, insult-filled dressing down. Naturally, everyone dreaded the meeting. The manager's tactics did inspire some to work harder in order to avoid humiliation, but for the most part these meetings killed morale. My friend transferred out of that department. The manager was eventually promoted. Sometimes, just the rumor that a manager is prone to fits or retaliation will kill the potential brainstorming that meetings can foster. These rumors can grow into a workplace legends. At a couple of my jobs, I was warned on the first day that the big bosses had fired someone, maybe several people, for disagreeing with them in meetings. Being new, I kept my mouth shut. Even later, when the threat of dismissal over a difference of opinion seemed slight, I was cemented into the culture of the closed-mouthed. I would nod and smile through meetings, afterward exchanging e-mails with my coworkers about all the things we didn't say. Which brings up another problem with meetings: Most people don't like speaking up and making themselves vulnerable. Folks who have information and good ideas don't often volunteer to share. They complain about nothing ever changing, but they never offer the ideas that could promote change. Even the best managers can't run effective meetings by themselves.
This was California -- they might not go for hugs at IBM.	I think the culprit that lurks beneath all these meeting problems is a corporate culture that emphasizes covering your own behind. We may think we want to accomplish something in a meeting, but we're not willing to take the risk of saying something stupid or doing something wrong. The culture teaches us to play it safe, even if we bore everyone and waste a lot of time. It doesn't seem to matter that people are sometimes praised for speaking up, making suggestions, or voicing an unpopular view. After a brief rocket-like burst of optimism, these incidents peter out and get swallowed by the speak-no-evil status quo. Worse, it's not really anybody's fault. You can't blame management or employees or consultants or the stock market. Something that's an ingrained part of the culture is very hard to change. I met a guy named Darrin a few years back who told me what his firm -- a non-profit hunger relief agency -- did about meeting phobia. At the start of each meeting, everyone hugged everyone else. They did it again at the end of the meeting. This embracing seemed to take away the c-y-b attitudes. "It makes you feel like you're all in it together," he said. "We're all working to end hunger, not look good. Even if you get mad at someone or they get mad at you, the hugs take the stings away."
Ron wasn't afraid to act foolish if it helped keep people's attention.	Now, granted, this was in California. They might not go for hugs at IBM. But it worked for some people, and it broke up the attitudes everyone brought with them about meetings. The best meetings I ever went to were led by my friend Ron, who worked for an outdoor adventure company. He had to give everyone a lot of information about the weather and equipment and so forth. Some had heard it many times, some never. Ron kept them all awake with humor. He wasn't afraid to act foolish if it helped keep people's attention. He had a large floor fan to cool the room if it got too warm. He'd turn it on and say, "This is my biggest fan." Everyone laughed every time. Not all of us are funny, but we can all be foolish from time to time. I don't know if that's the cure for meeting malaise, but a little more foolishness at work sure couldn't hurt. Catherine Hedgecock is a freelance writer and editor in Berkeley, California. She has written for USA Today, Knight Ridder newspapers, GNN, and other publications. She has won first place investigative reporting awards from California Newspaper Publishers Association, Gannett newspapers, and Best of the West. Ms. Hedgecock is currently writing a mystery novel. © 1996 Catherine Hedgecock, All Rights Reserved