Of the Rings of Powerpoint and the Third Age
Many of us have doubtless experienced the Interminable Meeting of Doom. It drags on for hours and hours, but afterwards, when you're asked what was concluded, you can only shrug, and say, "er.... um... Stuff?" Months later, when the follow-up meeting happens, someone manages dig out the Minutes that someone wrote and forgot to ciculate, and you look back at them, and realise that nobody there has any memory of any of the "decisions" you supposedly came to, and nothing has been done about any of them.
Compare the Council of Elrond. It starts "early," after Frodo has watched the sun rise, which is probably around 7 in the morning, if it's anything like England in late October. (Unless Rivendell practises daylight saving? If so, late October would probably be round about the time that Elvish Summer Time ended, so all the timings could be out of by hour. But since nobody turns up an hour late, saying, "sorry! I forgot that the clocks had changed," I think we can discount this as a possible complication.) Worryingly, there's no mention of breakfast beforehand, but presumably there's one of those pumpy coffee dispensers on the side, along with plates of digestive biscuits and fruit shortcakes. It finishes just after the noon bell sounds.
So that is five hours maximum, and probably less, to cover the thousands of years of history and to decide how to save the world. It does kind of put to shame all those meetings that take 6 hours and fail to decide what colour to paint the new office building.
Additionally:
- Nobody turns up late, causing everything to come to a halt as all the chairs get shuffled up to make room for them, and they get invited to help themselves to coffee, which is discovered to be cold, causing fresh coffee to be sent for.
- Nobody runs through the fire drill procedures beforehand and explains where the toilets are. Despite this, no doom results. Doom is indeed discussed, but it doesn't appear to relate to inadequately signposted toilets. (Although I am suddenly now wondering just where are the Toilets of Rivendell, and what they look like. And the Toilets of Lórien! WE NEED TO BE TOLD!)
- Nobody takes any Minutes. There is no agonisingly long half-minute in which everyone sits very still and looks at their feet, desperately hoping that somebody else will volunteer to take them. (Although it occurs to me suddenly that the relevant parts of the Red Book of Westmarch possibly are the Minutes of the Council of Elrond. Bilbo is not one for bullet points, it seems.)
- Despite the lack of Minutes, all Points of Action agreed upon are in fact carried out as planned. "Destroy Ring (FB). Take Sword of Elendil to Gondor (A son of A). Get Facilities Maintenance Team to reforge Sword of Elendil..." This alone is enough to make it remarkable in the annals of all the meetings that there have ever been in all the worlds.
- Despite outlining several thousands years history, Elrond does not use Powerpoint.
- There is no "comfort break," in which the few smokers in the meeting (Gandalf, Aragorn, hobbits) wander outside to smoke (does Elrond ban smoking inside in public places, do you think?) and, during the break, quickly make the only actual decisions that the meeting comes up with.
I think the Council of Elrond should be compulsory reading in business school.
Compare the Council of Elrond. It starts "early," after Frodo has watched the sun rise, which is probably around 7 in the morning, if it's anything like England in late October. (Unless Rivendell practises daylight saving? If so, late October would probably be round about the time that Elvish Summer Time ended, so all the timings could be out of by hour. But since nobody turns up an hour late, saying, "sorry! I forgot that the clocks had changed," I think we can discount this as a possible complication.) Worryingly, there's no mention of breakfast beforehand, but presumably there's one of those pumpy coffee dispensers on the side, along with plates of digestive biscuits and fruit shortcakes. It finishes just after the noon bell sounds.
So that is five hours maximum, and probably less, to cover the thousands of years of history and to decide how to save the world. It does kind of put to shame all those meetings that take 6 hours and fail to decide what colour to paint the new office building.
Additionally:
- Nobody turns up late, causing everything to come to a halt as all the chairs get shuffled up to make room for them, and they get invited to help themselves to coffee, which is discovered to be cold, causing fresh coffee to be sent for.
- Nobody runs through the fire drill procedures beforehand and explains where the toilets are. Despite this, no doom results. Doom is indeed discussed, but it doesn't appear to relate to inadequately signposted toilets. (Although I am suddenly now wondering just where are the Toilets of Rivendell, and what they look like. And the Toilets of Lórien! WE NEED TO BE TOLD!)
- Nobody takes any Minutes. There is no agonisingly long half-minute in which everyone sits very still and looks at their feet, desperately hoping that somebody else will volunteer to take them. (Although it occurs to me suddenly that the relevant parts of the Red Book of Westmarch possibly are the Minutes of the Council of Elrond. Bilbo is not one for bullet points, it seems.)
- Despite the lack of Minutes, all Points of Action agreed upon are in fact carried out as planned. "Destroy Ring (FB). Take Sword of Elendil to Gondor (A son of A). Get Facilities Maintenance Team to reforge Sword of Elendil..." This alone is enough to make it remarkable in the annals of all the meetings that there have ever been in all the worlds.
- Despite outlining several thousands years history, Elrond does not use Powerpoint.
- There is no "comfort break," in which the few smokers in the meeting (Gandalf, Aragorn, hobbits) wander outside to smoke (does Elrond ban smoking inside in public places, do you think?) and, during the break, quickly make the only actual decisions that the meeting comes up with.
I think the Council of Elrond should be compulsory reading in business school.