More meetings please !

It is very trendy to be against meetings. At least once a week I read some blog that makes anyone who participates in, let alone organizes, meetings feel like a managerial dinosaur. Meetings are bad. They are a waste of time and they don’t do anything good. I once bought a book, “Death by meeting”, by Patrick Lencioni, just because of its title. Cool title but a complete waste of paper.

In my recent experiences, I found that the key ingredient missing for teams to work efficiently together, was the lack of … meetings. Meaningful meetings that is. Meetings where people actually talk. It seems that the only meetings that exist are like the old-fashioned (and out-dated) university lectures, where The One Who Knows All stands in front and teaches to the scribbling (these days iPad-ing) masses.

But what about the meeting where people sit around a table (or better still, stand up where the issue occurs) and talk intently and in a focused way about the organization’s problems, what to do about them, and who will do what to move forward. Meetings where opinions are exchanged, views are challenged and people work together to improve the way the organization functions. Meetings where people talk to each other (not about each other), look each other in the eyes and commit to actions. Meetings where problems and issues (the things the entire organization is gossiping about, but remain unaddressed) are tackled and ways are found – even by trial and error – to move forward. Meetings where a follow up is organized to evaluate the progress and readjust if needed.

What are the alternatives ? Emails ? Please, no more. Emails seem to have become a substitute for  people talking to each other. We now need apps to deal with the continuous useless flood of emails (the best app is called DEL). Coffee-machine or water-cooler conversations ? These are good for the “what’s-new-in-your-world” chatter but they often reinforce the gossip, are clique and not team-based, and rarely lead to action. Outside retreats ? Fun to do but you don’t generate team cohesion by working on a team twice a year.

If anything, I see too few meetings. Too few meetings like the ones described above. Meetings where people work in a focused way, make decisions and hold each other accountable for results and commitments. Something to think about before shooting off another email to ten people.

Leadership development on steroids

The most interesting session at the ASEAN Business Forum 2013 organized by TMA in Bangkok last week was entitled “Mobilizing talent in ASEAN”. A rightly chosen topic, because as Nick Sutcliffe (The Conference Board) mentioned, a survey of 300 CEOs in the region indicates that people development was their top challenge, and their greatest fear in relation to the opportunities around AEC 2015 is the shortage of leaders and managers.  

The high growth and economic dynamism in Asia requires companies to accelerate the way they develop their leaders. Apprenticeships that transfer skills and knowledge from an experienced professional to a new recruit take years. Steadily moving up in the organization, over 10 or 20 years, has been the model of people development in western companies. But companies don’t have that time comfort any longer. And Generation Y employees are not interested in taking a lifetime to grow up professionally !

So what is the solution ? Maybe more training courses ? None of the panelists even mentioned training. What about executive coaching ? Coaching is definitely gaining recognition in Asia, and the panelists indicated they were counting on it. But coaching is a significant investment and focuses on a single individual. Overseas assignments ? SCG and IBM referred to their company’s approach to offer opportunities for Asians to live and work abroad. This is maybe possible for the few multinationals, but less so for the majority of companies.  And even when overseas assignments are possible, volunteers (especially in Thailand !) are hard to find.

If all the solutions listed have a limited level of success, what is left ? Nick Sutcliffe mentioned action learning as a method that works for Generation Y and that creates a continuous learning environment. Action learning helps a team to (1) address real business problems, develop options and implement solutions, (2) allow leaders to practice and refine their leadership competencies continuously and (3) do all this actively involving the entire leadership team. The process of asking questions allows a team to explore all aspects of a problem, and often leads to breakthrough solutions that the organization had not thought about. Asking questions also challenges each individual’s mental models through the discovery of other patterns of reasoning and thinking.

You can send your people to training courses (they won’t mind !). Or you can remain frustrated why nobody is signing up for the job opportunity in Vietnam. But maybe it is time to create a continuum of learning and doing that helps your young managers to accelerate their knowledge and experience acquisition. Find out more about action learning !