Coming to the end of my psychiatry block, I have had a realisation about meetings. There were just too many of them. I sat through mindless meetings where time felt like it had completely stopped and I was stuck. Morning meetings on paper took half an hour, but in reality felt like my entire soul had been sucked out at times, and I was being punished.
Sitting through meeting after meeting makes you realise that they are simply not work. They are a substitute for work. They don’t really help move anything forward. They can be summarised in an email. They are usually thoughts people have already had before the meeting. None of them have been revolutionary. They may change the odd thing here and there. Some of these changes aren’t really pushing the needle though.
Meetings are tiring, they require a different type of social energy that takes some time to recharge afterwards. I could work on something I care about, something I’m using my mind for, for hours sometimes without a break. I couldn’t sit through a meeting, even on a topic I cared about, for longer than half an hour. I wonder why that is.
Actions ultimately speak louder and more profoundly than words. Words actually are mostly filler. Mostly mind dumping. Mostly unnecessary. It’s interesting that people find the need to share their every thought at work as if it is what they’re there to do. That’s what writers do.
One of my seniors told me they did a job in Denmark where meetings were very few and far between. Work was actually done. Progress was actually made. Things got done. People were doing things they wanted to do. People felt motivated. People weren’t drained. The environment was different.
Ideas do need to be bounced off people sometimes. This can be done outside a formal meeting. Creativity isn’t plan-able. Meetings certainly aren’t most people’s creative spaces. Idle thought and flow states aren’t reached when they are interrupted by meetings upon meetings.
Here’s a call to just do the work. Stop calling meetings. Talk to people individually. Actually connect and listen to them that way.
Leave a Reply