Meeting Amnesia

Let's talk about meeting amnesia! I define “meeting amnesia” as the inability to recall details of a meeting in which you were in attendance. This sometimes manifests as forgetting the meeting happened entirely, but more often you see it as the inability to recall details that were in conflict with the person's opinions, desires, or plans. Do you know someone who has habitual meeting amnesia? Here are a few examples:

“That doesn’t seem like something I would have agreed to” (When something has changed and they no longer feel compelled to complete an action item they took)

“Why are we taking that approach? I don’t think it would work.” (In reference to a decision that was made in a prior meeting)

“Why would you have done the analysis that way?” (When you built the analysis based on their feedback in a prior meeting)

“I would’ve liked to have been informed about this decision before it was rolled out.” (When they were in the meeting where you informed everyone that it was being rolled out)

As a leader, if you aren’t vigilant, meeting amnesia can be a learned behavior and become a cultural norm. If you allow people to have selective memories and rewrite history in ways that benefit them, you will teach your high performers that personal accountability is not valued. When you, as the leader, do not address examples of meeting amnesia , you send a silent signal that words don’t matter…and this means that no one has to be accountable for what they say and do.