In Pursuit of Elegant Meetings

OK, folks, I am not talking ball gowns here. By "elegance" I mean something that is simple, powerful, and effective...and, of course, sustainable. I was inspired by a short article written by Matthew May for the MITSloan Management Review, entitled Elegance by Design: The Art of Less. He expands on this in his book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, which is on my reading list.

May argues that "the goal of elegance is to maximize effect with minimum means". Now, we all know what doing more with less usually means -- longer hours, less pay, fewer resources, and we can probably all agree that the dominant thought we have when we hear this is one bordering on despair. This isn't May's argument, though. Instead, he presents three ideas to do more with less: symmetry, seduction, and subtraction. Here are my ideas on how to apply these three ideas to sustainable meetings.

Symmetry ("simple rules create effective order"): May argues that symmetry derives its power from the core values of an organization. Instead of acres of rules and regulations, a core value of "sustainability" would mean that meeting manager could implement this however they thought worked best ("think global, act local" might be the best summary of this idea). An example of this kind of symmetry is "reverse logistics" applied to meetings, that is, finding an end use for a material before its purchase or creation. A great example of this that I use in my presentations is that of the WorldSkills competition when it was in my hometown of Calgary last year. This event, the "Olympics of trades", focuses on 44 trades in 6 major skill areas, and what they did to make this sustainable was brilliant and easily replicated: they found an end-use for the products being showcased. For example, the cabinetry competition created cabinets which were then donated to Habitat for Humanity. The food from the cooking competition was donated to a local homeless organization. The graphic arts competition designed a poster then used by a charity. Here we have symmetry, simplicity and social impact created by following the principle of "sustainability".


Subtraction ("restraint and removal creates value"): It is so easy to do what we have always done, and this is often evident at meetings. Annual conferences, especially, are guilty of perpetuating this cycle of sameness --- contact favourite supplier, order registration bag, stuff bag, you get the idea. Asking ourselves "what don't we need"? is especially useful when trying to reduce our environmental impact and improve our economic well-being. Both are essential elements of sustainable meetings, and both help the pursuit of elegance.

Seduction ("limiting information to create intrigue"): Here's where I must deviate from Mr. May by offering a different definition for "seduction": "Share with stakeholders". No intrigue here. A recent survey by McKinsey entitled How Companies Manage Sustainability indicates that building and managing corporate reputations through sustainability was a key driver. Meetings are primary communications vehicles and can effectively showcase sustainability in action. So seduce. And here is one seduction where you should kiss and tell.