Unlearning: Not preparing for meetings

Please repeat after me - "I am not too busy to read the report."

When I was an Executive Director/CEO in the nonprofit sector, I had a recurring moment of dread on a monthly basis. I remember it clearly and am currently having palpitations even thinking about it. I think my blood pressure is rising as I write. Deep breaths. Annnndddd.... relax......

It was the moment before my monthly board meetings. The feeling of deep, sickening dread - okay, yes I am being a little dramatic - came about as I waited for the board members to arrive. I knew what would happen. The 2 or more hours I spent with these volunteers would likely involve wrangling the flow of ideas that would occur as a result of discussing what was happening in the agency. It didn't matter what organization, what cause or even what board members. With a few exceptions, these folks were ready share all of their ideas about what the staff and I should be doing.

Sounds great right? An interested and excited board? What am I complaining about eh? The problem was that the flow of ideas was often in no way relevant or helpful to the work we were actually doing. They flowed freely based on the conversation being had and the ideas being generated in that moment. They were not based on actual information about what was happening in the organization.

BECAUSE THEY DID NOT READ THE REPORT.

I am talking about the report that was sent to them, at their insistence, the week before the meeting. The report that they said was needed to help them prepare more effectively for the meeting. The report that I always generated by asking each department, program manager/supervisor to provide to show what we had been doing over the past month. The report that I spent at least a couple of hours preparing so that they would feel informed. The report that clearly stipulated what was needed from the board in terms of input or decision making at that meeting. The report that would enable us as a group to make informed, evidence based decisions to help the organization move forward.

Instead, they would reach for the report I had printed out every board meeting at their insistence, glance at it and then start to share their amazing ideas based on the nano-second it took to read a couple of the words. Then, when I would gently, sometimes less gently, push back on these amazing ideas because they were not relevant, necessary or well thought out, I would become a 'difficult employee' in their eyes.

I was once in a meeting where a couple of board members got very excited about the possibility of a marketing strategy. When I tried to tell them that we already had one and it was operating well (as mentioned in the report!), one of them yelled at me and said that they were my boss and I just had to do what I was told. She was joining by teleconference and her voice rang out around the room. The rest of the board looked at me awkwardly or stared down at the report they had not read. It was deeply embarrassing and unfair to me as the leader of the organization.

But I digress. My point in sharing this trauma...errmmm... story with you is this. This group of people called the Board of Directors are responsible for the overall, strategic leadership of the organization. And so many of the Board members I have worked with are super smart people, often experts in their fields. But when they turned up, not having read the report, they were unable to lead. They were unable to participate in a meaningful decision-making process that took into account what had happened already, and move us forward.

Even worse, the decisions that came from the meeting were often useless (eg. the already developed marketing plan), ill informed (so I had to make a call on whether to implement or hope they forget it), or irrelevant (leaving me to use more time trying to figure out how to navigate the situation).

As leaders in organizations, it is crucial that we do our due diligence in preparing for meetings. I get it. You are busy. But please consider that reading, digesting and thinking about issues that need to be dealt with or decided upon, actually saves you and everyone else time.

When we turn up to meetings and people have not prepared, what happens? Some people are silent because they have not read anything and don't want to show that or look stupid. Others feel the need to fill the space and come up with suggestions and ideas on the spot, based on no information. And then poor decisions are taken because time is a ticking and the meeting needs to move on.

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