We've all been there. You're sitting in a conference room (or these days, staring at a grid of faces on Zoom), and the sudden thought hits you like a freight train: *Why am I here?* Not in an existential crisis kind of way, but in a genuine moment of professional confusion where you cannot, for the life of you, figure out how or why you ended up in this particular meeting.
The Anatomy of Meeting Confusion
It usually starts innocently enough. Perhaps it was that calendar invite you absentmindedly accepted three weeks ago while triaging your inbox between calls. Or maybe your name was added to a recurring series that began with a clear purpose but has since morphed into something unrecognizable. Whatever the origin story, the result is the same – you're now 15 minutes into a discussion about quarterly projections for a product line you've never worked on, trying desperately to piece together why anyone thought your presence was necessary.
I recently found myself in this exact scenario. As …
