You know, the one that is more important than the actual meeting. The one that doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time. The one where only a select subset of the initial group that gathered is convened, where people share what they really think and feel, where the questions that matter are asked and addressed, and where key decisions are made.
While these encore meetings might feel productive, the reality is they are destructive.
These post-meeting meetings are expensive, foster a toxic organizational culture, erode trust and engagement, encourage a passive-aggressive approach to conflict, and leave team members feeling excluded, undermined, unseen, unheard, unappreciated, and frustrated.
Instead of falling in the trap of the meeting after the meeting, invest in developing a habit of designing initial meetings that are meaningful. And be judicious about deciding when meetings are truly needed.
