(2022-03-31) Cutler A Tale Of Two Meetings

John Cutler TBM 15/52: A Tale of Two Meetings. Contrast two teams/meetings:

Meeting #1 - 60 minutes
Team brainstorms. There's a vague commitment to "synthesize feedback and return with next steps."

Meeting #2 - 180 minutes
Pre-reads completed. Data presented. Team brainstorms. Diverges. Then converges. Decides on next steps, spheres of ownership, etc. Calendars blocked. Roadmaps adjusted (because every commitment involves saying no to something else).

These situations can emerge one tiny decision at a time, over quarters, years and decades.

Tiny, pragmatic adjustments, compounded a million times—punctuated by ineffective change efforts. It is a classic case of Drift Into Failure.

You can talk about empowerment all you want. You can debate problems vs. solutions, or outcomes vs. outputs. The proof is is actual changes in behavior, changes in the flow of information, and creating more Meeting #2 situations. That’s your metric. Meeting #2s :)