Less meeting preparation is more….
- sonyapower35
- Mar 23, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 10, 2021
OK, bear with me on this one, as you may already be thinking I have lost the plot! Have you felt guilty or incompetent for not having enough time to prepare for the next meeting you have been invited to? Is there a feeling of ‘winging it’ from time to time and fear of discovery? Do you find yourself with a week ahead of back-to-back meetings, and with plenty of opportunities to feel guilty about not being prepared enough for all of them? Are you giving up time with your loved ones and family so you can fit in extra time to prepare?
The obvious solution is to change this situation by cutting down on the number of meetings, shortening the meetings etc. Who has tried that already – how did it work out? I know first-hand it is not always as easy as it sounds. Often those good intentions do not last long, particularly when it seems there is not enough hours in the day. When I tried shortening my 1-hour meetings to 30 minutes, the eventual outcome was lots of back-to-back 30-minute meetings, and I was more exhausted than ever!
My personal experience as I moved into positions with more responsibility, was that the back-to-back meetings increased and quickly became the new normal. I often had little or no time to prepare for the next meeting, and I eventually made the choice to just go with the flow (OK, in reality I decided for my own sanity I would have to get used to ‘winging it’). But guess what I noticed? The meetings were still successful, even without my prior preparation – who would have thought it?! What is more, once I released myself from the guilty feelings about not having time to prepare, I started to enjoy meetings again. Each meeting became exciting and fresh. I hadn’t pre-formed opinions, so I was genuinely open to listening to new ideas and content. I could be curious, in the moment and fully engaged. So in my case, less preparation really was more!
So, if you are struggling with guilt about lack of preparation time for your back-to-back meetings, (or squeezing it in when you should be having down time), consider changing how you think about it. Think no longer of being unprepared, but instead as going into meetings with an open mind. By not preparing in advance, you have come prepared to listen, really listen and to be curious, asking questions that enable both parties to dig deeper and determine the required outcomes. I believe the most successful meetings are coming from open mindedness, listening, curiosity and empathy with an intended outcome of mutually agreeable solutions. I would argue that for experienced professionals, none of those aspects require preparation, and that preparation often encourages the forming of advance judgements and opinions that are harder to shift during the meeting.
So, if less preparation is more (and obviously I’m talking mostly about when you are a participant rather than the lead!), there is nothing to feel guilty about after all. Go ahead and enjoy the extra time with your loved ones, guilt free 😊.
If you would like to see how you can change how you think to increase your positivity, confidence, and energy, then I’d love to work with you. Contact me to discuss what we could achieve together.
Technology evolves far faster than humans. Instead we adapt through learning or sometimes just muddle through by failing to learn. Where is the adaptation or learning in back to back meetings without intervals to pause let alone reflect? It may be well over five decades since Revans formulated L (learning) = P (programmed knowledge) + Q (questions) yet the obsession with back to back meetings suggest we care little for this formula. Instead the tower of Babel, if not babble prevails. So Sonya, I support changing how we think and to enable this, more time/space for thinking so let's back off from back to back meetings!