Of Messy Meetings
MR JOSHI loves team meetings. He loves it even more than that one chocolate pastry his wife allows him everyday. There is so much discussion and interchange of ideas, so much intellectual conversation and goal-oriented planning, the rustling of papers and pen; he finds the whole process rather exhilarating. Besides, they serve sweets at these meetings.
So, every Wednesday, he puts on his best tie and his lucky socks and heads off to office rubbing his fingers in glee. He manoeuvres his portly figure into the conference room and waves a good morning to his colleagues before easing himself into a leather-bound chair. Mr Varghese sips a glass of water before unfolding a large blue file that sits on the table with a few papers peeping out of it. Mr Chaturvedi walks in five minutes later. Everybody rises to acknowledge the fact that he is the Boss. Mr Chaturvedi is well aware of this. That is why he walked in five minutes late in the first place.
"Shall we gentlemen?" he asks in a desultory tone. The gentlemen gesture to indicate that they indeed shall. "What's on the agenda?"
"The GM says we need to push sales by 15 per cent next fiscal if we are to retain our edge in the market. I think the best way to do that is to... err... sell more," says Mr Varghese.
"Right... any other ideas?" asks Mr Chaturvedi, frowning at his fingernails.
Silence follows, for five whole minutes.
"Did anybody see Star Wars? It was on TV last night," chips in Mr Upadhyay.
"Oh yes, very nice, no? My daughter is very much interested in films like that," chortles Mr Rao. Mr Chaturvedi frowns some more. More silence.
"My daughter can't stop watching TV. I have a hard time to get her to her books. Just this morning I was going to drop her to school and we were late because she just had to finish watching the Drew Carey show," says Mr Joshi breaking the quiet and biting into a large slice of cake.
"Haha. All children have their little-little things, no?" says Mr Rao.
"You mean foibles?" asks Mr Chaturvedi.
"Yes, yes... ," Mr Rao stutters.
"Rao, what is a foible?" Mr Chaturvedi asks.
"Sir?" Mr Rao looks aghast.
"You said all little children have foibles. I would like to know what a foible is," Mr Chaturvedi asks. Mr Rao shoots him a pleading look and then appears fascinated by his own shoelaces, which he then laboriously unties and ties.
Mr Chaturvedi, frown gone and now basking in smugness, turns to Mr Joshi. "So what do you think, Joshi? South Africa or Australia?"
"Australia, without doubt, sir. Ponting is in terrific form," replies Mr Joshi. Mr Chaturvedi grunts in agreement.
"I... I think we should target the semi-urban segment. It is an avenue we have never... " begins the bespectacled Mr Sharma. He tries to say more but is cut short by an annoyed look from Mr Chaturvedi.
"If you think a bunch of scantily clad villagers are going to buy a high-end quality product like ours you are gravely mistaken Mr Sharma. No, I don't think that's a good idea. Oh... we are running out of time. Why don't we schedule another meeting to discuss this further? Say 9.30 tomorrow?" he says.
Mr Sharma looks around trying to find either meaning in life or the invisible ghost of Tamerlane, but finding neither finally rests his eyes on Mr Joshi who is looking at him with an extremely intense expression on his face. "Are you going to finish that?" he asks pointing to Mr Sharma's half-eaten pastry on the plate.
Team meetings have never had it so good. They are in an entirely separate genre altogether. As a means for busting stress and improving the general sense of bonhomie there is nothing to beat a team meeting. As a method for improving productivity however, team meetings can be the pits. But, it doesn't have to be, provided you take the proper precautions:
a. Decide on an agenda before hand: This is the first step without which everything else fails. Have a clear goal or objective in mind before calling for a meeting.
b. Set a time frame: This is a crucial step. Make an appropriate estimate of how long the meeting should take and pitch for a conclusion before the end of that time frame.
c. Do not deviate from the agenda: A frequent mistake people make is to go into little conversational bylanes that have no bearing on the meeting whatsoever. The prudent thing to do would be to ensure that the meeting does not deviate from the agenda.
d. Only relevant people must be invited: Make sure that the people present at the meeting need to be there. If they have nothing to add to the proceedings, they would be better off working at their desks.
e. Always maintain a formal tone: This is essential if the meeting is to bear fruit. A formal ambience preserves the sanctity of the agenda and keeps the members focused on the problem at hand.
f. Keep a written record or minutes of the proceedings: This is helpful later on, not only as a matter of procedure, but as a measure of clarity and a record of what was discussed and resolved at the meeting.
g. Allow all members present to have their say and communicate their ideas: the objective of a meeting is to bring different ideas and resources into one common pool. Needless to say, unless every member is allowed to voice his opinion, that objective fails and so does the meeting.
Ultimately, the success of a meeting is heavily dependant on how committed people are to finding a solution to the problem. As a final word, we leave you with a famous quote by Ronald Reagan which seems appropriate at this juncture: "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."
ARJUN SENGUPTA
Arjuns.hyd@cnkonline.com
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