Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
The most expensive meeting
The most expensive meeting in your business is the one that ends in agreement to keep talking.
You know the shape. It opens with the owner thinking aloud. So I've been mulling a few things over this week. Forty minutes later there's been discussion, nodding, a warm sense of progress, and nothing decided. The same issues will be back next week, wearing slightly different clothes, and the week after that.
Then one day something shifts. Somebody stops the owner mid-flow and says, what are we actually trying to decide right now, and who owns it? And the owner says, fine. And means it. That's the moment a meeting starts working. Not the agenda template. Not the software. The permission, taken and granted, to demand an outcome.
A leadership meeting has one job: decisions, with owners and dates attached. Numbers first, five minutes, no discussion unless something's off track. Priorities checked in a sentence each. Issues raised, discussed once, solved. Last week's actions read back, done or not done. And a closing question almost nobody asks: what does the rest of the business need to hear from this room, and who's telling them?
Boring, every week, same shape. The boring is the feature. Predictable rooms produce decisions. Interesting rooms produce conversation.
Here's my question for you. What was the last decision your leadership meeting actually produced, and when? Reply with it. If you have to think hard, that's the answer too.
David
David Schofield · Purpose In Action
Purpose In Action Coaching & Consulting
Here, I explore history, mythology, and the deeper forces shaping our world — and how men and families can prepare for, and adapt to, these times of great change.
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