Meet Me at Meaning

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
Penguin Random House, May 2018

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Are most of the meetings you attend meaningful and memorable? Are some lackluster, routine, or unproductive? Priya Parker asks such questions in her effort to examine gatherings - because gatherings matter. Her aim is to help us understand what sustains a human-centered approach to our experience together. To go beyond the accepted conventions of meetings, she outlines how to make simple, specific changes that bring the distinctiveness of each member of the group into the experience. In her research, she interviewed more than 100 gatherers, including the New York Times Page One editors, Cirque de Soleil choreographers, flash mob participants, families in crisis, and Zen Bhuddist leaders. She concludes that the discerning gatherer understands the difference between routine and ritual. While unexamined traditions can constrain, rituals are powerful as long as the form continues to match the underlying needs of the gathering. She believes that gatherings can only be meaningful when there is a purpose for them and that the habit of gathering for a clear purpose makes for more honesty, more likelihood that we will see the things that we used to avoid, and more balancing of power among the participants. For Parker, a good gathering is constructed so as not to miss tapping into the potential of all people around the table – that is, if there is still a table in your gathering space, because everything about how we come together is up for grabs. Parker is inviting, believable and steady in her advocacy for gathering well to advance the causes and issues that matter most in our work and in our lives.