Meeting Theatre
We don’t work anymore. We attend.
Calendars are full. Outcomes are not.
The meeting has replaced the decision. It feels productive. It looks collaborative. It avoids the only thing that matters—someone taking responsibility and being wrong.
Watch closely. People aren’t trying to solve the problem. They’re trying to survive the room.
Say something smart. Not too smart. Don’t go first. Definitely don’t go last. Agree just enough. Disagree carefully. Leave with your reputation intact.
That’s the job.
The real work? That happens offstage. Quiet conversations. Side deals. Decisions made before the meeting, confirmed after it.
The meeting itself is just the performance.
We’ve built organisations where visibility beats value. Where being seen to contribute matters more than actually moving things forward.
So we meet. Again. And again. And again.
Not because we need to.
Because it’s safer than deciding.
And we pretend not to notice.
