What is the outcome of this meeting?

In the 68th minute of a meeting that was only supposed to be 60 minutes long, the person on the other end of zoom asked me:

"What was the outcome you expected for this meeting?"

It took me by surprise. Then I laughed a little. Then I had an answer.

There are some meetings for me that are very by the books. I have a very clear outcome for the meeting and let everyone know that outcome ideally prior to the meeting, but at the very least within the first few minutes of the meeting.

There are other meetings, like this one, where we happen to stumble upon it after the meeting has basically already ended.

In this particular case, I shared that my outcome was two-fold:

1. This is a person who I want to spend more time with and get to know better. I see mutual value in deepening the relationship, and that takes time. So this meeting was part that.
2. The other part was more obscure. I shared that there are certain things that have yet to reveal themselves. I feel that this person is very tapped in and knowledgeable about things of great interest to me, and our conversations are always revealing. No matter where the flow of the conversation takes us, more is being uncovered.

I'm grateful to have the space at the moment to have conversations like this. The outcome of the meeting may not be realized for days, weeks, months, years or decades. These meetings are part of the long game. While these are few and far in between, they are definitely some of my favorite meetings.