Meetings. What are they good for?
Generally speaking, meetings suck, we all agree about that. But there is one thing meetings are great for. Meetings reveal what kind of people you are dealing with.
Some people turn up without much of a clue. They sit there passively with very little to contribute. And they don’t get much out of the meeting. They could have just as easily have not gone and just read an email about it afterwards.
Some people use a meeting purely to push their own agenda. They may or may not have something to contribute, but their first priority is to ensure they get out of the meeting what they want.
Some people only want to derail or disrupt meetings. They distract from the discussion with misleading questions, statements and jokes.
Some people show up informed and interested. They have prepared for the meeting, thought about what is going to be discussed ahead of time, figured out what questions to ask and what they want to get out of it, and what they want to say and how they are going to contribute.