A Bias Toward Action
“Meetings are a symptom of bad organizations. The fewer the meetings the better.”
“Have a bias toward action—let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.”
In higher education, there is a growing sense that it takes too long to turn strategic conversations into tactical decisions. Implementing new online offerings or advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives are complex changes that demand important dialogue. Often, the first step is to form a committee or working group. This generates focus while killing momentum at the same time.
The problem with committees and working groups is that they don’t exercise the critical step in decision-making – “what are we going to do and by when?” Getting the right players around the table is important, but equally or more important is to grant someone the authority to say: “Fantastic dialogue! Now, here’s what we’re going to do.” In the absence of a person having this responsibility, a committee’s focus will only lead to more conversation. The larger the committee, the greater the need for more meetings.
What is a bias toward action? It’s moving quickly on an idea with a recognition that there is never enough information to guarantee success. It’s making time for exploration and declaring when conversation is done and decisions need to be made. It’s leadership delegating authority to someone who will pull the lever and begin the work.
Meetings have become our safe haven in which we connect and listen, but often devalue people’s time and sap energy from our intrinsic motivation to get things done. The pandemic has created a new form of meeting obsession, now without any breaks. In the good old days, we’d stroll across campus before our next meeting. God forbid we schedule a 45-minute virtual meeting so that we have time to take a breath and prepare for our next one.
Organizations need to take a hard look at shifting this cultural bias that holds action hostage in the name of dialogue. As we’re coming out of lockdown and beginning to bring our people back to the office, it’s time to set new norms that bring accountability into our meeting culture. Otherwise, we will be lulled back into complacency, and continue to set a low bar that does not produce acceleration on the initiatives that have the greatest strategic benefit.
To learn how we can help you and your institution develop a culture of accountability, visit us online at teibelinc.com.
