Commenting on Meetings

Commenting on Meetings

This afternoon, we had a long meeting at work. The meeting went well, but it lasted for 4 hours. This is way too long! It is true that we covered many topics. Particularly regarding the tool we develop and the ways to fix the issues (strong problems) or the bugs (smaller problems) identified so far. Bugs appear at the end of a period, when the tool sends a report. The report is not clear. So the bugs are listed in a queue of things that need fixing.
During the meeting, we also talked about how to make the tool evolve. Actually, we talked about those evolutions during the entire session. This is because everybody had their own idea and wanted to contribute. As a result, we had a very creative session. The session was very similar to a brain storming session.
That kind of meeting is interesting, but there is a problem. The problem is that nobody present at the meeting is in a position to take or make a decision on those ideas. So the result is that minutes are produced, and then another meeting is scheduled to discuss the minutes and maybe select a few ideas to investigate further. As a result, we have to follow another procedure just to select a few ideas to follow.
Another point on the positive side of today’s meeting is that I was able to collect a lot of information, which is the purpose of my job. In addition, I got closer to the people on the team. As a conclusion, those were 4 hours well spent.
Still the meeting was very long and tomorrow I have 2 other meetings scheduled. I feel like in the company people love to attend meetings. Unfortunately the work is not done while I am in a meeting. I still have to do the work. And the work has to be done later. In addition, I bring back home some issues that stick to my mind and keep me preoccupied. I keep thinking about what needs to be done to get the work done.