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Other Applications 353

Meetings and negotiations

BACKGROUND

Cynics say that meetings are usually a displacement activity for people who have nothing
better to do and that standing committees are the worst of all.

RED TAPE COMMITTEE meetings cost the UK taxpayers between £1
and £50 billion per annum. The committee
At a recent meeting of the Red Tape thus reported a mean loss of £25 billion.
Committee it was unanimously agreed (with
four dissenting votes) that unnecessary

The intelligence of a committee varies inversely with the number of people on it.
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups

There are many different types of meetings, some of which are more exposed to deception
than others, depending on whether they are internal and involve only employees or external
with the participation of third parties, and whether they are:

• decision-related11 – when the purpose is to agree on some future action, such as whether a
new product should be launched or a new procedure put in place;

• informational, – when the main purpose is to advise people on a decision that has already
been made, such as announcing the creation of a new department or putting a redundancy
program in place;

• task-related – to produce a desired detailed output, such as finalizing a legal contract or de-
signing a new brochure.

The possibilities and estimated levels of potential deception, varying from good lies to hot air
and outrageous trickery, can be summarized as in Table 9.3.

This section deals with most types of meetings and suggests how you can handle them to
minimize the risks of being deceived.

OBJECTIVES

Your objectives, for most meetings, are likely to be:

• to ensure you take decisions based only on the truth;
• to influence the meeting in a way that achieves your objectives;
• to minimize the amount of time you and your subordinates spend on pointless meetings;
• to ensure that an accurate record is kept of all important meetings.

These objectives can be achieved by a slight modification of the cunning plan and will depend
on whether you call (and are thus in charge of) a meeting or are merely a participant.

Stay neutral in a conflict so you can win whichever way it goes

11 Including negotiations