Purpose of this article
At work, meetings sometimes begin with vague ideas.
“We want high school students to find the company appealing.” “We want to make a good-looking video.” “A senior person said we should include it.” “Let’s discuss it together and decide.”
At first, statements like these are closer to wishes than requirements.
People who think logically may find it hard to move forward until those wishes are converted into requirements.
This article explains how to organize a vague meeting.
Wishes and requirements are different
A common situation in meetings is that only wishes have been stated.
Examples:
- We want high school students to find the company appealing
- We want to communicate the atmosphere of the company
- We also want to include company events
- We also want to show the facilities
- We want it to feel good overall
These points matter, but they cannot be turned directly into work as they are.
To make them into requirements, they need to be converted into questions such as:
- Who will see it?
- Where will it be used?
- How many minutes should it be?
- What content must be included?
- What content should not be included?
- Who will provide the materials?
- Who will review it?
- By when must it be completed?
Questions that break down vague discussion
Here are questions you can use in a meeting.
Who is the target audience this time?
Where will this video be used?
What content must be included?
What can be included if there is room?
Is this a main focus this time, or a supporting element?
Who will make the final decision?
Who will prepare the materials, and by when?
As you ask these questions, wishes gradually turn into requirements.
Decide whose perspective is primary
When a meeting starts to scatter, different perspectives may be getting mixed together.
For example, even if the video is for high school students, it can end up containing only what the company wants to show.
In that case, bring the subject back into focus.
I think the main perspective this time is not the company but the high school students.
I think it will be easier to understand if the content helps high school students imagine what it would be like after joining the company.
Simply deciding whose perspective is primary makes it easier to see which content should take priority.
Separate elements that are being mixed together
In a vague meeting, multiple objectives often get mixed together.
Examples:
- The flow of 1 day
- Introducing what makes the company attractive
- Introducing internal events
- Introducing facilities
- An idea from a senior person
- A recruiting message
If you put all of these into 1 video, the focus becomes blurred.
You can respond like this:
I think all of these are good elements.
However, if we put everything into 3 minutes, the main point may become hard to follow, so I’d like to separate the main focus from the supporting elements this time.
Separate required items from optional ones
When there are many opinions, separate what is required from what is optional.
I’d like to separate what must be included this time from what we can include if there is room.
Should your current suggestion be treated as required, or as something to include if there is room?
This one exchange can help organize side comments and interruptions in a meeting.
Work backward from the schedule
People who think logically are often good at working backward from a deadline.
For example, if there are only a few days left until completion, check the following:
- Deadline for submitting materials
- Editing period
- Review date
- Revision deadline
- Final submission date
If the deadline is close, rather than trying to include everything, you need to narrow the scope to something that can realistically be shown.
To get this into a form we can show within the deadline, I’d like to confirm the content we will include and the scope of the materials.
Using AI to organize meetings
Vague meetings are a good fit for AI.
You can roughly describe the current situation by voice input and ask AI to create:
- A structured list of discussion points
- An opening script for the meeting
- Who to ask about what
- Expected questions and answers
- PowerPoint
- A post-meeting memo
In particular, people who think logically may become tired because they can see too many gaps in their head.
Giving those gaps to AI and having it convert them into meeting-ready language can reduce the load.
Summary
To organize a vague meeting, you need to turn wishes into requirements.
The important thing is not to blame the other person.
It is to confirm:
- Who the content is for
- What the main focus is
- What is supplementary
- Who will provide the materials
- Who will make the decision
- By when it will be reviewed
People who think logically tend to notice gaps in meetings.
Use that trait for organization rather than anger.
Then use AI to convert it into scripts, materials, and memos.
That is a way to avoid becoming overly drained by vague meetings.
