Paradoxically also, efforts to bring about premature closure should be welcomed as material which can be processed into more appropriate forms and patterns. But any traces of condescension also need to be challenged. It is the definitiveness and significance associated with words which are constantly called into question during a vigorous meeting process. At worst this becomes an exercise in sterile word games. At best new and unexpected insights acquire a verbal container by which they can be held and transported elsewhere.
Elusive qualities become communicable.
There is a case for moving beyond the assumption that a meeting is in some way a gathering of the forces of light to challenge the external forces of darkness. The problems of society and the planet are only too evident in the meeting itself. These range from the social problems of dominance and manipulation, through issues of social deprivation and psychological undernourishment, to the pollution and exploitation of the non-renewable resources of the meeting by misguided approaches to ensuring its productivity or to the development of its human resources. Cultivating diversity Inability to work with diversity has led to an obsession with achieving consensus at all costs. And yet diversity of values, perceptions, priorities and preferred strategies is a prime characteristic of meetings.