# The Flow of Meaningful Discussions By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-06-18 Can a meaningful discussion be manufactured? If not, is a meaningful discussion predictable? Many of the ingredients of a meaningful discussion are manufacturable. At least two parties are needed for a meaningful discussion, and they need the time and space for the discussion to occur. But, these hardly predict any meaningfulness. Sometimes, the two parties will argue; other times, they will joke around, and still, other times, they will never make it beyond small talk. So, perhaps an agenda is also needed. An agenda implies the intention of having a meaningful discussion, but rarely does this guarantee it. Many meetings go by with well-intentioned agendas but without any progress or meaning. Simply putting people in a room with an agenda for a time is insufficient to manufacture or predict a meaningful discussion. Yet, we know that sometimes meaningful discussions happen under such conditions. Two friends share lunch, and suddenly, something meaningful happens. They may have met for lunch hundreds of times before this moment, but something happened this time to create a meaningful outcome, insight, or discovery. Since everyone has experienced this in some fashion, many hope to replicate it so everything becomes more meaningful and efficient. Imagine how much further we'd be if we could eliminate the hundreds of pre-meaningful discussions. So, we meet and meet and meet. We create ever more agendas and pre-meetings to ensure everyone agrees. When the meeting does happen, anything less than meaningful progress is seen as a failure. But we pick ourselves up, learn, and try again, only to fail some more. Then, one day, a meaningful discussion happens. We quickly document the conditions to replicate it in the future. The process repeats again and again. Eventually, one realizes that meaningful discussions are highly unpredictable and can't be manufactured. The discussions emerge when the time is right. Forcing it will never work. It wastes energy and is a false measure of productivity and growth. One must find the river's flow, steer to avoid the rocks along the way, and step off the boat when the destination is reached. One will be well-rested and prepared for the moment, while others will be too exhausted to notice that the boat has long since stopped moving. #### Related Items [[Discussions]] [[Meetings]] [[Wu-Wei]] [[Forecasting]] [[Meaning]] [[Intention]] [[Flow]]