Before: meeting theatre
No decision question, unclear owner, twelve calendars, a slide deck nobody requested.
The Delivery Diaries · 4 November 2026
The Meeting That Needed a Meeting to Discuss the Meeting
One calendar invite. Twelve attendees. Zero decisions. Welcome to the meeting economy.
Somewhere in a very ordinary office, a perfectly reasonable request has evolved into a recurring series of meetings. The programme is not late yet. The calendar, however, is fully booked.
A fictional composite. All characters, conversations and situations are invented; any resemblance to actual organisations or people is coincidental.
Scene 01
The calendar invitation
Monday, 9:02am. A meeting arrives titled “Alignment”. No agenda. Twelve attendees. Forty-five minutes. The delivery lead stares at the invite as though it might explain itself.
“What exactly are we aligning?”
The silence in the chat was impressively aligned.
Scene 02
The pre-meeting
By 10:15, three people have arranged a pre-meeting to decide what the main meeting should cover. Someone creates a slide deck. Someone else asks for a RACI. The project has now acquired a governance structure but still no decision.
“Could we have a quick call before the call?”
The quick call was thirty minutes.
Scene 03
The plot twist
In the actual meeting, a quiet analyst asks one question: “Who needs to decide what, and by when?” For the first time all morning, the room goes still. The answer fits on a sticky note.
“One owner. Two options. A decision by Thursday.”
Fourteen slides suddenly feel a little overdressed.
Scene 04
The ending nobody scheduled
The lead cancels the follow-up meeting, sends a two-paragraph decision note and names the owner. The work moves forward. Nobody receives a commemorative PowerPoint.
“Can we make this the new process?”
Only if we resist scheduling a meeting to approve it.
THE BEFORE & AFTER
Busy is not the same as moving.
After: decision discipline
One decision statement, named accountable owner, two viable options and a clear deadline.
The three-step rescue
01 · Define
Write the decision as a question, not a vague agenda.
02 · Assign
Identify the person who can make it and the input they actually need.
03 · Record
Capture the decision, rationale, owner and next action.
Take this back to work
- Decline meetings without a purpose or decision to make.
- Separate consultation from decision authority.
- Use a short decision log before commissioning another deck.