Zen and the Art of attending meetings

While attending meetings one should only be attending the meeting. We might ponder...is this meeting a waste of my time? Only if we THINK it is a waste of our time.

Yes, we are active and concerned people so we don't have time to sit idly by in meetings, day-dreaming about the possibility of an Abba reunion, or why Perillos invented the brazen bull, or who I could have an entire conversation with by just using song lyrics. No! We must prepare projects and try to resolve a million difficulties. There is important work to be completed! How will we finish, what has yet to be started, if we are just sitting in a meeting room? Perhaps, by staying in the moment and listening a truth will be revealed that teaches us something important.

Listening! Don’t we all want to be heard and understood? When was the last time you practiced active listening? What happened to the art of listening? Really listening to the person talking without working through our own mental to do list? A wise old owl that I've worked with for many years taught me to sit back, observe, watch for positions and listen in meetings. I'm known to be more of a talker so this is a real Zen practice for me. To hear where someone is coming from without jumping to conclusions and judging takes a lot of practice. To focus on what a person is saying, instead of preparing our own response and waiting for a moment to jump in is practicing the art of listening. Not condemning the organizer of the meeting to a fiery hell where there is no chocolate cake is practicing the art of attending meetings.

So next time you think a meeting is a waste of time, ask yourself the following questions…

A. Do you really know everything?
B. When was the last time you listened more than talked?
C. If I can understand the intricacies of someone else’s project, maybe I will be enlightened about my own.
D. It is possible I have something to offer to this discussion that I do not yet understand, after all, someone wanted me here.
E. Is thinking and visioning as important as doing?
F. Repeat A.

No more mental vacation, no more soduko under the agenda, no more reading email on my Treo when trapped in a meeting. I am going to live in the moment and be a good meeting attendee.