Circus elephant teaches about meetings 🐘

Why you stay in meetings you hate

Mar 16, 2026

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"You can’t change the past, but you can create a new ending." - Jorge Bucay

Hi,

How was your last week?

Last month, I talked to a marketing manager working for a company with over 500 employees globally. Here’s what they said:

“I have 4 sales updates meetings a week: one global, one regional (that also shares global numbers), and a few market specific (that also start with global numbers). I don’t do anything there, just listen. There are more than 25 people on each call. But that’s 4 hours of my time. How do I handle this?”

Why share this with you?

Because I’m confident you have your own version of those and you feel you can’t escape them.

Here’s what I shared with them: It’s a choice.

We can continue being part of the problem: attend these meetings, feel frustration, and express it elsewhere. Nobody wins here — especially not you. Or, you can remember that you do have the power to escape, at least to try.

the why

In Let Me Tell You A Story by Jorge Bucay there’s a story about a childhood memory of a circus elephant.

He talks about the elephant — powerful enough to uproot trees — standing tied to a tiny wooden stake. A chain around his legs. Nothing he couldn’t actually break, but he never tried.

When the elephant was small, he had tried and failed — many times. So he stopped. And accepted that as his truth, his fate.

“The worst of it all is that he has never tried to free himself since. He never ever tried to test his powers again.”

We’re not so different from that elephant: we tell stories to ourselves that disempower, imprison, and take away our right to choose. We think that because everyone else stays silent, we can’t change anything either. But they’re probably thinking exactly the same.

There’s a coaching technique called narrative coaching. It’s rooted in the idea that we live the story we tell ourselves. We’re the authors and the actors of our story. But that also means we can rewrite it.

So let’s rewrite yours.

the how

If you want to escape meetings that could be an email or shouldn’t happen at all, the most important thing you must accept is this:

You won’t be liked… at first. But later, people will thank you. And you’ll thank yourself.

You’ll be proud of choosing a solution — one that invites others to recognize the power they have too.

Here’s what I did to find that power with better decisions.

Decline

Remember you always have a choice — because ultimately, you’ll be praised for results you were hired to deliver not for the number of meetings you’ve attended. So decline if:

You can access the information in a regular report.
You have another meeting to actually discuss those numbers.
You will receive meeting minutes.

Think of alternatives

Of course, it’s not possible to decline all. But there’re alternatives you can play with. If a meeting has over 20 people, you’re merely a face (that might not be even on camera) and the person leading the meeting is focused on their slides — not on you. A few examples:

What if you joined 1 meeting not four?
What if you joined a different one out of 4 each week?
What if you delegate to someone who can use visibility or learn?

Start conversations

If you think those meetings could be an email, or just 1 meeting instead of 4, or are unnecessary because information is distributed elsewhere, chances of your colleagues attending those same meetings thinking the same is extremely high. But if everyone thinks like that baby elephant, nothing will change. So find courage, test your power, and start a conversation:

What if we met biweekly instead?
What if we combine these meetings into one?
What if we met once a month and replaced the rest with an email?

The only way to get out of unproductive meetings is to make better decisions. Meetings don’t schedule themselves, they don’t accept themselves.

The more you test your power, the more confident you’ll become. It takes courage — and that’s why if you want to elevate the quality of your time at work, you must be prepared for not being liked… at first.

Later, your colleagues will thank you. And so will the people waiting for you after work.

your play of the week

Test your power 🐘

If unproductive meetings take over your calendar, this week, test your power and free up that space for value work or time for what you love after work: