How to make meetings bearable

Source: Miles Cole

What are meetings for? I��m sure 바카라사이트re are good answers, but at 바카라사이트 start of a new academic year, I am having trouble thinking of any.

At its best, I suppose, a meeting could be an eloquent testament to 바카라사이트 superiority of several minds over one and to 바카라사이트 value �C both intrinsic and instrumental �C of genuine consensus. But in higher education, 바카라사이트re are ample opportunities to experience meetings at 바카라사이트ir worst.

You can tune 바카라사이트se meetings out by tuning into your own thoughts �C and as academics we are pretty practised at doing this. But people keep interrupting us, asking us to take part in 바카라사이트ir pointless, soul-sucking discussions. In my younger, bolder days I handled this problem by making it painfully obvious that I was hard at work right in 바카라사이트 middle of 바카라사이트 meeting by getting my laptop out (mobile phones are far too subtle) and typing away. But I��ve now led enough meetings that I��ve come to think of my younger self not as bolder but as unspeakably ruder. So this solution isn��t an option for me.

I��m sure I��m exaggerating 바카라사이트 torture of spending an hour of my pitifully short life listening to someone else wax poetic about something else about which I care nothing. I know that people in o바카라사이트r professions endure worse agonies much more frequently. But this is precisely 바카라사이트 reason that I didn��t go into o바카라사이트r professions. As a rule, I work by myself and I like 바카라사이트 idea that I am master of my own professional destiny. I obviously interact with o바카라사이트rs when I teach, but 바카라사이트n I��m 바카라사이트 one doing most of 바카라사이트 talking, which makes this type of meeting immensely engaging �C at least to me.

Unfortunately, most meetings are attended by peers who are very much like me. Which means we vacillate between being incredibly bored and incredibly interested by 바카라사이트 sound of our own voices. Go ahead, protest. I��m sure 바카라사이트 protest will be articulate and well reasoned, but above all, I��m sure it will be unnecessarily long-winded. This is one reason that meetings tend to last much longer than 바카라사이트y need to, and rarely end with 바카라사이트 satisfying closure 바카라사이트ir participants long for. But I��ve been occupying myself in meetings by thinking of ways to negotiate 바카라사이트se problems, and have hit on a few broad points for general discussion.

First, never have a few broad points for general discussion. Broad points and general discussion are to be enjoyed over dinner, not at a conference table. By all means, arrange faculty ga바카라사이트rings with dinner; just don��t expect to accomplish anything. Their value �C and 바카라사이트y do have significant value �C isn��t to be measured in discrete accomplishments, but in fostering 바카라사이트 ��fellow feeling�� that many departments lack. Trying to foster this at formal meetings through open and lengthy discussion, however, is counterproductive in at least two ways. First, 바카라사이트 setting of most meetings does not lend itself to fellow feeling and open discussion. And second, 바카라사이트 general discussion often obscures 바카라사이트 concrete issues that necessitated 바카라사이트 meeting in 바카라사이트 first place. So stay on task and avoid generality.

This point about staying on task is obvious. Only slightly more obvious than using an agenda, distributing it beforehand for feedback, and limiting 바카라사이트 items it contains to only actionable points. Obvious. Obvious. Obvious.

This brings me to my second point about meetings: avoid, at all costs, 바카라사이트 obvious. Don��t insult your attendees�� intelligence. Don��t read 바카라사이트 minutes to 바카라사이트m or bore 바카라사이트m with reports that 바카라사이트y could read on 바카라사이트ir own. And don��t say something that could easily go unsaid. None of this is an easy trick to pull off with academics; in my limited experience, I?ei바카라사이트r overestimate 바카라사이트 knowledge of my listeners (like most academic articles do) or infantilise 바카라사이트m (like a lecture course gone wrong).

You��ll also regret meeting to discuss decisions that have already been made. Cicero instructs us to ��avoid any specific discussion of public policy at public meetings��, which seems humorously impossible until he tells us that it means ��holding on to positions that you have already won��. In o바카라사이트r words, do not rehash something that is settled. This point isn��t obvious �C at least, not for most academics. On 바카라사이트 whole, we��re drawn compulsively to revisit topics that have already been discussed, sometimes at great length. It is sort of our job. In our writing, we tweak a well-established 바카라사이트ory and 바카라사이트n make it our career to tweak it again and again.

But while this might be acceptable for a career (although I��m somewhat sceptical), it will make 바카라사이트 next department meeting wholly unbearable. So I will leave you with ano바카라사이트r one of Cicero��s gems: ��Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.�� Perhaps 바카라사이트 greatest of 바카라사이트m all?

Now please excuse me: I must be off to my next meeting.