We’ve All Known a Culture Like This

As a 30-year fan of the genius-like corporate cartoon parody Dilbert, the creator Scott Adams once unveiled a character called “Meeting Moth.”

The Meeting Moth was someone who when peering through a conference room window and witnessed a meeting, began flapping his wings uncontrollably. We’ve all known colleagues like that, folks who have had absolutely no involvement with a meeting yet rubberneck like opposite lane drivers viewing a five-car pile-up.

I had more experience than I’d like to admit about meetings – fruitful or not – as I’ve probably attended more than the Geneva Convention should allow. I worked 12 years for a company that – I kid you not – on more than one occasion scheduled a meeting to determine when we could schedule a meeting.

Our-then publisher once sent out an email at 4 pm on a Friday afternoon calling for a mandatory all-hands-on-deck, no excuses meeting at 6:30 that evening. Amidst the grumbling of delayed restaurant reservations and missing out on various Happy Hours throughout the city, he stood up and said with a straight face, “we’re really not having a meeting I just wanted to see how quickly we could all get together should we need one.”

I believe it took three people to restrain several irate employees who threatened to throw him out the window.

 I mention this saga of my meeting pedigree because I read that a book on that very subject has just been released. Titled “Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change,” the tome goes into depth of why a traditional meeting forum is often unproductive (picture my E*Trade Baby shocked face!) and why companies should break apart the silo structure. It encourages everyone to speak and participate in brainstorming sessions. It also discourages bringing in consultants whose solutions often lie in a template mentality.

This would not have gone over well with my last company as they spent more on consultants in a month than they did on employee’s salaries.

I always wondered what pedigree folks needed to be included in strategy sessions. Truth be told most were overpaid and unnecessary layers of management hanging on to their jobs with concepts rooted in a 1960s business school text.

At a former company three of the best ideas that turned out to be profit centers were actually suggested by the rank and file.

And done so without a Meeting Moth in sight!