If you work for any size organization than a single proprietorship ( you) that involves more than one employee ( you) the odds are that you are going to be involved in “meetings”. In a very small firm it may involve the informality of meeting at the local donut shop or similar venue.

In larger organizations meetings seem to be a fact of life. Its group-think – that is 2 (or 3, 5, 10 or 20) heads are better than one. Some workers are “meeting people” – that is they just love and even live for these “events’ where as most workers just want to get on with their jobs and tasks and leave the meeting area as soon as humanely possible. Others will effectively tell the boss or administration what they want to hear “Victor what do you think of whets been covered in the meeting?” “Golly gee I can hardly wait to get out on my territory to implement the important strategies and tactics that have been covered in these wonderful hours / days”. It’s enough to give you a stroke so to speak. Yet how does a sane person get past these events?

It can be said that committees are formed and maintained for a multiplicity of reasons. In some instances their rile is that of pooling the specialized knowledge that is required for decision making whereas in other cases the committee is a vehicle for communicating information to several key individuals at the same time. Management development is also considered as a by product of certain committee involvements.

The second factor to understand in that in addition to this pooling of resources so to speak another major purpose of these “meetings” is often either to spread around responsibility so that no one person or agent can be held liable for decisions. Who adopted this -“committee abcd alphabet soup name”? Recognize this fact of business life as well and even enjoy it.

Lastly also appreciate that another major role of committees – especially in government and similar organizations is a delaying tool and tactic. Committees may be used expressly to delay action and taking any actions especially in controversial or very expensive projects where its best left to the “next guy” (or next political party in power, department head or next minister for them to accept responsibility or lack thereof for potentially negative results. It may even be that the role of the meeting of the committee is to bury a given project or activities altogether.

In the end it’s a simple case that outside of planning to be out of town, or feigning illness and sickness there is not a lot you can do to avoid meeting other than accepting meetings in any business setting as a fact of life, and even a legitimate social activity by others. Grin and bear it. Hopefully the meeting goes smoothly, runs it course and no-one in the meeting plays devils advocate and drives the event on for more than the quick time period that the said event deserves. Be good and quiet and hopefully it will all be over quick so you can get back to your work and tasks at hand.

Tom I. Stables
Fire Your Boss
Ace Training Net

The Doughnut School Style of Management

Tom I. Stables
http://jerkbossesihaveknown.com/
Fire Your Boss
http://bit.ly/donutschoolmanagmentstyle
The Doughnut Shop \”School of Management\”

Author Bio: Tom I. Stables
Fire Your Boss
Ace Training Net

The Doughnut School Style of Management

Category: Jobs
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