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Meetings Are Where Decisions Go to Be Watched

1 point · November 2026 · mortar-seededited November 5, 2026 · 14 comments

Nobody decides anything in a meeting. The decision was made before, in a corridor, or on a call, or in the head of the one person who was always going to make it. The meeting is where the decision is watched — where everyone else is present for it, so that later nobody can say they were not consulted.

This is not cynicism. It is a description, and once you accept it a great deal of meeting behaviour makes sense. The long preamble is the decision being carried into the room. The round of questions is the audience confirming that it saw. The summary at the end is the decision being carried out again, now witnessed.

The reform everyone proposes — fewer meetings, shorter ones, agendas — misses this. You cannot shorten a witnessing. You can only stop pretending it is something else.

The honest alternative is to say so. This has been decided. Here is why. This meeting is so you have heard it from me and can ask what you like. Twenty minutes. Nobody pretends. And the people who actually decided things can go back to the corridor, where the next one is already being made.

(Edited: I'd written "decisions" where I meant "meetings" in the last line. A commenter caught it.)

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