How Thomas Jefferson prepared for meetings
No disrespect to Mr Jefferson but this management method does not work.<p>It always results in a pyrrhic victory and resentment from the other people on the table from being made to look incompetent (although the truth is that indeed, they are for not coming to meetings prepared).<p>Let me explain<p>My last job was President of a College Newspaper. It was a pretty cool job. I had lots of power and I felt like I was "the one" who would usher this paper into a web 2.0 era. I came up with this grand plan and all. Unfortunately, much of the rest of my board was largely incompetent (or this was what I thought). Also, running the college newspaper wasn't as much of a passion for them as it was for me. They all had better things to do.<p>Ofcourse the natural resulted. Lots of meeting where we would not make quorom. Discussions without reading the background material however earlier on we had sent out a padded agenda etc. Naturally also, I was the most prepared for most of the meetings. I knew our Byelaws and PnP in and out and ofcourse, I knew the operations and management procedure for the newspaper, start to finish at the back of my hand. I got my way at meetings a lot of the time because no one at the table knew better and the people who knew better knew I was (mostly) right.<p>Soon enough however, resentment had begun to build. I was "arrogant" and an "asshole". We were always moving "too fast" even when it was clearly the right management decision (often taken 2 weeks after it should have). My VP was beginning to overrule management decisions we had discussed at meetings she had failed to attend for one reason or the other. In short, it was chaos.<p>I started work in May. By October, I was insane, overworked, single and had not spoken to my family in months. I resigned.<p>Long story short: If you are banking on the ignorance of your team to succeed in a project by pushing through your agenda. You have already lost. Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself, who will come to meetings as prepared as you are. Watch your project, team, committee soar. Surround yourself with morons who are too slow to keep up with you and you'll always be lagging behind.<p>You can trust I took this lesson to heart when I started building my own startup.