I had a meeting today at 4pm (yeah, I know it is Friday) at work concerning a business deal. I’ll leave out specific details but it was supposed to be about fixing some problems. I’m not a big fan of meetings but this one was required because the email exchanges were not making things better, in fact it was making things worse. So the hope was to get everyone involved into one room (6 people), and address a list of details and get them crossed of EVERYONE’s list right then and there. I like meetings if stuff can get accomplished, otherwise I avoid them.
Unfortunately it didn’t go well. Five people showed up, having done all their prep work, and ready to meet, but one person arrived with seemingly no desire to get anything done. Well not really, it seemed that they were there to PREVENT anything from getting done. Instead of following the agenda, they wandered, interrupted, and actively prevented any issue from being resolved. It was very frustrating.
Thankfully that person left the meeting, and at least a small amount of progress was made. Very strange experience though.