What could enrage someone so much to have them cause a scene and walk out? The Liar. I'm sure everyone has dealt with someone who has a belief that cannot be changed no matter how many logical arguments are made against it.
Well, today I was sitting in a meeting discussing new parts when Liar started asking questions about the new computer systems we're using. It's annoying because this wasn't the appropriate venue to get his questions answered and I feel like it wasted everyone's time. However, I'm glad I was there to thwart his efforts of making our processes even more convoluted than they already are. Here is how the meeting went:
Liar: We need to review all the part numbers, SQE needs early visibility, we need part numbers during this meeting
Me: Why?
Liar: There are things we need to do in the system
Me: Right, which we won't be able to do until parts are loaded in the system which isn't until after the Wednesday meeting where part numbers are always provided
Liar: We need early visibility
Me: Parts may change before the official release. We get the part numbers Wednesday when they are officially released, I don't see a need for them before then
The conversation then moves elsewhere, and about 3 minutes later...
Liar: So can we get the part numbers at this meeting?
There are a few people here that are like this. Once they get an idea in their head, they can't change it. "I have a brilliant idea!" No, no, really, you don't, you have an idea that will add work and gain us nothing, but for some reason you are so proud of having an idea that you can't listen to other suggestions or ideas about your original [stupid] idea.
And that is what caused the engineer to storm out of the meeting years ago. Liar had an idea, each of the other 18 people in the room disagreed with it. Nearly all of them presented at least one logical reason why Liar's idea was atrocious, but he wouldn't listen. Liar's idea would have made the project more complicated and more costly and not gained anything. While all of us tried to explain this, he wouldn't listen. For 15 minutes the entire room argued with Liar but he refused to deviate from his original idea and belief. This led to the engineer getting up and declaring, "in 35 years of working here I have never had to walk out of a meeting, but I can't stay here if you won't listen to reason" and he walked out the door. I wish I had had the nerve to follow him out, or at least give him a standing ovation.
Meetings are one of the most costly things a company can have. And the reason for this is multi-faceted.
ReplyDelete1) The # of people involved in the meeting. Which is usually a decent % more than who should actually be there. Take the salaries of all people involved, and add them up, that's the cost per hour of the meeting, unusually high in most cases.
2) No proper agenda. This causes the meeting to go long, as people fumble for information, and dilly dally in making it into the conference call. Not staying on topic as 'Liar' did here, clearly cost the company oodles of money.
3) Along with the above, sidetracking and tangents. In college I was told you can't hold anyone's attention for more than 15 minutes. So after that time, the meeting usually drifts into a conversation between two people that could be held without the other 13 people in the room, and it takes time to get back on track.
The most expensive meeting I've ever been involved in, I actually estimated how much the meeting cost the company, in this case it was the owner, as the people in involved were all directly billable, and from many different companies. I estimated salaries of the people in the room, a few Project Engineer here, a couple Project Managers there, 4-5 Super Intendents, some field Labor hands, a couple General Managers. I estimated this 3 hour meeting we had cost them about $12k. Between just having the space for the meeting, all the people involved, the lunch that was ordered, etc. All of this, and nothing was actually decided.
I despise meetings for all those reasons. I'm now tempted to do a cost estimate for the most pointless ones and use it when my supervisor tries to make me sit through another hour of people complaining about processes that will never ever change.
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