Jason A. Belt

Have you been at a meeting for one topic, but then before you know it, one person derails the meeting with a side topic that came from the discussion happening at that time?

Some of my colleagues and I have called this chasing ‘The Squirrel’.

Work happens in shared groups of people. The people you have worked with in these groups tend to be like a family. All of you end up knowing the same people, from the same organizations, and so it becomes like a close friend group or a family when you get together. The same stories come up and then memories flood the group. Some are cause for laughter, some sadness, and others are still fresh and filled with wonder and when everyone talks about them there is this pause amongst the group and or people all nod in unison, but just can’t seem to put their finger on why this always happened and what was the purpose. One of these topics is The Squirrel.

The Squirrel finds its way into the meeting in various ways, and here are some of them I have personally seen:

• The meeting (any meeting for any reason) is flowing through the agenda and is headed toward the planned outcome, but then there Is one person speaking that says something and then the highest ranking member attending the meeting latches on to their words. This leader then latches onto their words and proceeds to chase The Squirrel down the path, through the briars, with no turning back.

• A meeting is happening with the main agenda item helping the manager in question solve a problem. The manager is presenting findings to the group helping, when reporting data on a spreadsheet, on line 5, column D, the leader of this manager fixates on this data point and then spends several minutes berating the manager as to why this data point could be this way while the other people on the meeting just watch and wonder if they will ever be back on topic or the high level of the meeting in the first place, helping the manager solve a larger problem.

• The team is meeting about marketing and how to best proceed with logo and color choices. The marketing manager is asking for leadership to confirm the color choices and then stamp this task as complete and move on. Then the highest-ranking leader in the room fixates on the origin of marketing and how much a company should really spend on this when it is not clearly measurable. The marketing agency is left trying to educate the leader about marketing from its inception through now and the marketing manager is left wondering how we got there when the assumption at the time of hire was the leader of the company sponsored the marketing initiatives in the first place.

• A manager called a meeting to chat with a vendor about a new feature the team could use in bettering service for the buyers/clients. The manager’s boss joins the meeting and then proceeds to berate the vendor over how they can charge for these new features when the product is already too expensive the way it is now. How the features should have been part of the original feature set in the first place and how the company will not pay for them but expects them for the originally contracted rate. The next several minutes are taken up by the vendor dancing around trying to keep the business of this company, but still speaking to the fact from their point of view that new features are part of a higher package and this company purchased the lower tier package, etc. Everyone in the meeting is left feeling uncomfortable and a lack of legitimacy.

Have you ever experienced any of these 4 examples? The Squirrel can find a crack and there are those working people that have a harder time than others avoiding the chase. Meetings are expensive. They are also an investment into the organization as many smart people are coming together to sync, share ideas, work on a problem, and or learn together. Derailing a planned meeting to chase a singular focus from one person, The Squirrel, not only distracts at that moment but could set back the overall progress of the organization. Also, if this is a common issue with a leader or a group of people, then there will be a trend of those people impacted that follows as they will then lose confidence in the leader or the group to maintain focus, discipline, and in the end to get the high-level results needed to grow.

Squirrels are small, they are fast, and chasing them is very very hard, but in the scheme of work and an overall organization, the opportunity cost of chasing and catching that squirrel might be too high as others around you might be wanting to work as a team to chase much bigger aims.

As leaders we need to maintain discipline and focus when it comes to the times we get to meet as a group with the smartest people we should ultimately be working to enable, not micromanage.

For me, a simple meeting agenda has worked when before the meeting starts, all attending agree to the reason for the meeting, and the outcome(s) we are all there to achieve. Also, offering a true and free out to anyone invited that does not believe their contribution is worth the time cost, can and should ask to be excused for this reason. Lastly, if anyone mentions something off-topic, showing them that you have noted it for discussion later, then re-directing everyone to the agenda, makes them feel heard, but maintains focus.

All the best and good luck avoiding the chase!

JB