Alive by Meeting: A Solution to the Paradox of Meetings Based on the Pyramid of New Collaboration

Abstract

Meetings are the activity at the centre of every organisation; they are critical. But there is a problem: most people hate them. How can we solve this so‑called “paradox of meetings”? How can we avoid death by meeting? By reviewing meeting theories which help to better understand meetings, we have found support for the view that bad meetings today are primarily the consequence of unsuitable knowledge sharing and collaboration. Based on this and by applying our new understanding of collaboration as New Collaboration, we propose to look at meetings by focusing on collaborative problem‑solving and to perceive collaboration in such problem‑solving meetings as New Collaboration. But how do we have to interact in order to implement New Collaboration in meetings? This is where our Pyramid of New Collaboration comes in as a detailed description of the collaboration process. Our paper will first review related literature dealing with leadership, meeting theories, knowledge sharing and collaboration. Then, we will explain in detail our concept of collaboration, the process of collaboration and the Pyramid of New Collaboration with its seven layers. Finally, we will discuss the application of the Pyramid to the solution of the paradox of meetings and propose the concept of a New Collaboration Meeting.