Published: July 4, 2025
The conference of the Eastern Nations began with the opening declaration by Duke Atinjo and the introduction of representatives by Duke Helb, along with his role as the moderator.
Ryo was expecting a tumultuous or back-and-forth meeting, but his expectations were betrayed.
The meeting progressed surprisingly harmoniously.
The basic policy of all participating nations joining forces against the Chououchi Empire was, of course, readily accepted, and even the decision to entrust the military frontlines and command authority to Darwei was passed without issue.
"This is different from what I thought."
"What? What did you think the meeting would be like?"
"A chaotic meeting where angry shouts fly around, criticizing the other nations non-stop!"
"Is there such an international conference? I've never heard of it."
"International conferences are wars fought with words instead of swords! It's not something to be taken lightly."
For some reason, Ryo asserted this strongly.
Of course, Abel had no idea about the basis of Ryo's claims. In fact, he thought the opposite.
"Well, a bilateral negotiation might be different, but a conference with multiple nations won’t turn out like that, right? Besides, bureaucrats conduct preliminary adjustments before a meeting of heads of state."
"That's just being naive! With that approach, the leaders won't be trained."
"Yeah, I don’t really get it."
Ryo's assertions were not understood by Abel, who was an active leader.
Of course, since Ryo's claims were mere delusions... it might be natural that they were not understood.
At that moment, Abel chuckled lightly.
Ryo noticed this.
"What are you laughing at?"
"No, I was just recalling a lecture I took back when I was in the Royal Castle, titled 'How to Approach a Meeting Effectively.'"
"Really?"
Ryo didn’t quite understand, so he decided to ask.
"Is that something taught in the Naitorei royal family?"
"Maybe my performance was poor, so the teacher thought it would be better to teach me. I've never heard that Elder Brother took such a course."
Abel smiled faintly.
Of course, the meeting continued during this exchange... and things were being decided rather smoothly.
"If the proposer approaches the meeting with an attitude of gathering everyone's opinions to decide something, nothing will get decided, and time will just be wasted."
"That might be true."
"Therefore, at the very least, one must prepare a preliminary proposal. And one must think about the final compromises as well."
"I understand about the preliminary proposal, but can you really anticipate the final compromises?"
"Ah, it's not difficult. Just researching the positions of the participants and what has been proposed so far provides ample information for speculation. In that case, you could figure it out from the materials at hand without directly confronting the other party, right?"
"That's true."
Ryo nodded at Abel's explanation.
Ryo had also heard similar things from a senior who started working at a foreign consulting firm.
The first thing the manager told him was to prepare a backup plan and a leeway line before attending meetings.
This applied to project meetings as well as meetings with other companies, in every circumstance.
Some say that compared to Japanese people, Westerners are better at conducting meetings, but that does not necessarily mean they are better at debating.
Before meetings start, they prepare backup plans and preliminary proposals, confirm the leeway lines with their superiors, and anticipate the final compromises, which is why decisions unfold smoothly.
Of course, if you include all of that, then it is indeed correct to say they are 'good at conducting meetings.'
Gathering in a conference room with no proposals or forecasts and arguing back and forth without anything getting decided is just a waste of time, which is self-evident.
In reality, it would be better to teach at least that much 'know-how' in school, especially in high school.
That is something that would be useful in any situation and is a technique that can be used for a lifetime.