Mistaking Form for Substance
On a cloudy, windy day several years ago, it was ten minutes past the hour in a dark and empty conference room. Empty, that is, except for the three of us standing there.
We were waiting for an important meeting to begin. A decision needed to be made. Input was needed. But first? We needed the room filled with the members of the team.
The boss, an extremely busy individual, looked at my colleague.
"So...", he started, obviously annoyed. "Where is everyone?"
My colleague stammered nervously, "Umm, I don't know. I mean, I sent out the email, booked the room, and everything."
The boss, an extremely patient man, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose slowly.
"Well," he said, smiling and looking at my colleague, "It seems as if your email didn't get the job done."
My colleague personally rounded up the people we needed for the meeting, the boss made the decision after consulting with the team, and everyone moved on with our day. No hard feelings from the boss, either! With the team laser-focused on the decision to be made, no one even sat down at the conference table, and we finished the meeting in record time. They just laid out the issues for the boss, explained the benefits and challenges of each course of action, and we left with a defined course of action.
This was years ago, but some things never change. People can hide behind the fact that they sent an email as evidence of accomplishing something or moving a project forward. What if the focus had originally been placed on the decision to be made, rather than on the slow process to set the meeting to eventually get to the decision?
What do you think?