Simply, this means. Something that disappears into nothing.

I’ve attended hundreds of meetings in my life. Business, personal. When someone is asked why they hate meetings? “BECAUSE THEY’RE SO BORING !!”

There are things in common with meetings that have always confounded me.Most meetings are well intentioned. Not all for sure. Too many agenda-less. Most don’t follow the agenda even if there is one.

They can be too highly controlled. Driven by a take charge leader. Or they can be meandering… too little controlled… all over the place.But there’s one thing that has always driven me crazy! Most of the impact, meaning, purpose, outcome, actions coming from meetings go…

Out Into the Ether… disappear into nothing.I attended a meeting this week in NYC. Big hitters. Can’t tell you who by name. But let’s just say the attendees were the CEOs of this and that. A hedge fund guy. Some of Wall Street’s finest. Two genuine philanthropists. Successful business people. Big guys and gals. And me.

One lead the meeting. Brilliant thoughts and ideas. Lawyerly discussions. Some really good stuff. You would expect a highly effective session. Appreciating the quality of people in the room.Here’s the clincher. We ended the meeting. Totally void of actions to follow up on. No wrap up. (Time had run over, always; some topics not covered… typical) Whoosh!! Hear it? Like that sound on an iPhone. The day disappeared into nothing… Out Into the Ether. No accountability, plan of action. Consider this. I call it the “Fade” … or the quick loss of memory most meeting attendees have two minutes after a meeting like this one ends. Phone calls, emails, texts. Much of this being done on the sly during the meeting. They quickly move on to all those things waiting to be done. The meeting content? Whoosh!

“Thank God that’s over.” Sound familiar? Welcome to the club. I have a great friend who has built one of the premier “learning organizations” in America. He quoted a number to me recently…in the hundreds of millions of dollars I think… lost by meetings, training sessions that are for the most part virtually useless. Ineffective.Wow! What an opportunity!

Space here doesn’t allow me to share my thoughts, experiences with meetings that are effective. There are many. It can be done. I’ll save my thoughts on this for another time.