Q. are c-level meetings doomed to be dull? (A. no)

By William Seidman Peter Bregman has written a provocative piece on dysfunction in executive teams, and ways to remedy that dysfunction. His description of executives spending most of their time doing (or ignoring) presentations is right on. Far too many executive (and other meetings) are used for updating that could be done much more efficiently. But the remedies suggested seem to be a typical consulting approach to remedy the problem. They don’t really get at the heart of how to change the meeting culture permanently. I’ve spent most of the last 15 years helping to create high performing organizations including reforming meeting cultures. The key to making meetings more productive is to change the underlying organizational culture of distrust and dysfunction by collectively developing a powerful, effective purpose for the organization. I don’t mean lame mission statements, but a statement that expresses the compelling social good that organization should generate. Once this the purpose is in place, the organization can systematically establish and execute a plan for achieving the mastery required to achieve their purpose. When purpose and mastery are in place, everyone is aligned on what needs to be done and is good at doing it, trust flourishes and updates become unnecessary. Everyone is working together in every way and meetings become about how to help each other and the whole organization achieve greatness. Focus on purpose and mastery and the meeting culture naturally changes for the better…and won’t that be great for all of us!]]>