news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

"i'm either in a meeting or on the way to a meeting", "i'm in meetings during the day at work and working overtime at night"... on the internet, many grassroots cadres are trapped in meetings and frequently "complain about meetings in various ways".

not long ago, the office of the special working mechanism for rectifying formalism at the central level and the general office of the central commission for discipline inspection reported three typical cases of rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots. one of the cases showed that in 2022, a certain unit required its subordinate enterprises to attend more than 800 meetings, an average of more than 3 times per working day.

frequent meetings take up a lot of time and energy.so, what is the point of meetings? do we really need so many meetings?

image source: visual china

one

mobilization meetings, promotion meetings, commendation meetings, condolence meetings, sharing meetings... the daily work of some grassroots cadres is "big meetings within small meetings, and meetings are always connected." with just a mobile phone, meetings can not only be held from eight hours to eight hours later, but even from within the country to abroad. so, what "tricks" are used in "deviant" meetings?

"circle".some meetings have no purpose, and the content of the speeches always jumps back and forth between "going off topic" and "getting back to the main topic". after wasting most of the day, because no practical conclusion can be reached, the meeting can only be hastily ended with a sentence of "discussing after the meeting". after the meeting, the discussion is still attended by the same group of people, and the cycle repeats. meetings are held again and again, but the problems are not solved. such meetings make the speakers exhausted and the listeners drowsy.

"owl".some meetings are always held when night falls, and some are called "reviews" to summarize the day's work results and form tomorrow's work plan. they can be finished in a few minutes, but are prolonged because of bickering and buck-passing. some leaders say "just have a quick meeting before leaving get off work", but who would have thought that the meeting would last until late at night, and no matter how rich the "chicken soup" is at the meeting, it cannot satisfy the hungry stomachs of grassroots cadres. although some do not hold face-to-face meetings, video conferences and telephone conferences will pop up in the work group at night.

"show off".some places and units believe that the larger the scale and the higher the level of the meeting, the more attention they receive from the grassroots. therefore, they excessively pursue the number of participating units and the level of leadership. whether it is to promote a work or convey a content, they often notify the responsible comrades of relevant departments and lines to attend. in fact, some comrades at the grassroots often have multiple duties. after attending this meeting today, they have to attend another meeting tomorrow. some comrades said that they are too busy to attend meetings alone.

"show".in some places, meetings are treated as road shows, with strategies and visions "floating in the air" and clichés and big talk "flying all over the place", divorced from the actual situation of grassroots cadres; some leaders treat the venue as a "show", believing that what is said is not important, only what others see is important, and they are keen on being in the news and publishing reports, equating saying with doing.

cartoon source: "cctv news" wechat public account

two

meetings are an important working method. what grassroots cadres reject is not the meetings themselves, but the abominable formalism. over the years, the scene of "the stage speaks eloquently, while the audience is drowsy" is not uncommon. so,why does the surging "sea of ​​meetings" occasionally "rebound"?

the lazy political thinking of “replacing execution with meetings”.in the eyes of some people, holding meetings one after another and more meetings every week is the best choice to show "action" and the most stable "routine" to avoid risks. for example, some leading cadres lack the spirit of responsibility and are happy to delegate tasks and pass on responsibilities through various meetings. as long as there is a meeting, it means that everything that should be deployed has been deployed and everything that should be executed has been executed. if there is a problem with the work, it means that the grassroots cadres have not done it well. in fact, the more meetings there are, the more difficult it is for grassroots cadres to cope with them, and they are prone to "passive slacking" over time.

there is a couplet, the first line is "you hold meetings, i hold meetings, everyone holds meetings", the second line is "you issue documents, i issue documents, everyone issues documents", and the horizontal banner is "who will implement it?" this is a great irony of lazy political thinking.

the utilitarian mentality of "showing political achievements through meetings".some people who are eager for quick success and instant benefits regard holding meetings as the only way to show their political achievements. behind this is the achievement concept of greed for empty achievements. they only follow their superiors and not the facts, and only care about political achievements and not the interests of the masses. this is what comrade mao zedong criticized as "a formalistic attitude based solely on the concept of 'superiors'."

for example, as long as there is an instruction from the higher authorities, some places will not distinguish between priorities, and will not hesitate to mobilize a large number of people, and are keen to hold meetings first to express their opinions in a high-profile manner. if these superficial measures are effective and even become a capital for promotion, it will be easy for the formalistic meeting style to persist despite repeated bans.

the wrong direction of “treating meetings as performance”.performance appraisals in some places do not focus on actual results, but overemphasize the one-size-fits-all and traceability of indicators, which objectively fuels the resurgence of the new "sea of ​​meetings". if the number and form of meetings and the amount of reporting materials can influence or determine performance appraisals to a certain extent, it will be easy for grassroots cadres to be busy with "beautifying and packaging" and ignore their actual work performance.

for example, some places often hold meetings superficially and perfunctorily. although each meeting record is thousands of words long, a closer look reveals that the minutes are almost identical for several consecutive times. another example is that some places add singing and dancing to the project selection meeting in the name of innovation to attract attention, which is really putting the cart before the horse and showing too much of the traces of performance.

image source: visual china

three

general secretary xi jinping stressed that cadres should be freed from some meaningless affairs. obviously, "mountains of documents and endless meetings" are one of the meaningless affairs. the "regulations on rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on grassroots" clearly pointed out that "meetings should be strictly streamlined." "slimming down" meetings cannot become an empty talk. in this regard, the author has a few words to say.

hold more efficient meetings.grassroots affairs are complicated and involved, from work deployment to implementation, from overall planning to task decomposition, from experience exchange to review and summary, many links are indeed inseparable from meetings.

comrade deng xiaoping once pointed out: "meetings should be small and short, and no meetings should be held without preparation." if there is no preparation before the meeting, and if there is rambling and hesitating during the meeting, and everything is left to be discussed "after the meeting", then in fact, it is meaningless to hold more meetings. we must focus on the theme of the meeting, spend time before the meeting, think clearly about the issues to be discussed and the measures to be explored in advance, speak less clichés and empty words, and speak more truthfully, so as to truly promote work. in the internet age, meetings must be held to "reduce costs and increase efficiency". some meetings can be held online, and some meetings can be combined.

hold more meetings to solve problems.meetings are held to pool ideas and solve problems. some netizens joked that "units that hold meetings frequently are inefficient", which is not without reason. when meetings are held to make decisions on both big and small matters, it will inevitably affect work efficiency and increase the burden on the grassroots.

comrade mao zedong strongly advocated the reform of the meeting style as early as the yan'an rectification movement. he once pointed out: "hold several meetings a year, either large or small, to solve current problems. if there are problems, we must see the universality from the individual." when holding meetings, it is better to read less scripts and go directly to the problems, or even go to the scene and the front line to solve the problems directly.

we must do a good job in the “second half” of the meeting."if you don't follow up after a meeting, it's a waste of time." only by using the baton of assessment well, keeping a close eye on things that are not implemented, and holding those who fail to implement them accountable, can the effectiveness of meetings be truly reflected. for government departments, a set of efficient and scientific assessment and evaluation standards is crucial.

for example, in the assessment and evaluation system, we take the number of problems solved, the number of practical things done, and the satisfaction of the masses as important assessment criteria to eliminate formalism from the root. of course, the "burden reduction" of meetings does not mean reducing responsibilities and burdens, but rather allowing everyone to free up more time for implementation, put what is said and written into practice, and use practical actions to establish a clear orientation for doing things and starting businesses.

only by “slimming down” the “fat” meetings, reducing formalism and increasing efficient execution can we create a good ecological environment with clear and upright atmosphere and pragmatic approach, which is what grassroots cadres and the masses eagerly hope for.