Good morning from a rainy winter’s day in Vancouver. In conversation last evening with a friend I was reminded of an important distinction; the difference between a meeting and a briefing. I suppose I first encountered it 15 or so years ago when all of the employees of the division that I worked for at the time were called to a ‘meeting.’ Two people from head office called the meeting, and after some preliminary announcements to those of us on the management team, we were informed that we would all be laid off in 6 months time. A most curious thing occurred; some people began to debate and discuss the other options that from their perspective needed to be considered, and frustratingly, the two people from head office actually started to debate the relative merits of the other options with those people, in fact increasing the pain and frustration felt by all concerned. The lesson? This was not a time for a meeting, this was a time for a briefing.
Now, briefings can be and should be about good news as well as bad news. They can be status updates from each member of a team, or just the leader, they can be announcements about change, about new directions, clear direction and introducing new staff and leaders. Meetings are most effective when they are focused on problem solving, brainstorming, team building and creative thinking. A good rule of thumb is that in a briefing the conversation is limited to clarifying and understanding the content disclosed, and then we go back to work to perhaps implement, whereas in a meeting the conversation is about working with and modifying the content, so that we can return to work with a solution in hand, some new ideas, a stronger team, and/or some creative possibilities. Put another way, at a briefing, we may discover the need for a meeting for some of us attending the briefing, and once we have completed the meeting, we may return to brief the others on what we discovered or decided.
May this week offer times for briefing and for meetings, but not at the same time!