The Master's Wheel
How Meeting Culture Shapes Your Team’s Success in Grants and Beyond
Don Diego de la Vega, portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, stands confidently in the heart of his lair, a dimly lit fortress filled with training tools of all kinds. His presence exudes wisdom and authority as he gazes intently at his pupil.
He gestures to a marked area on the floor and says, “This is called the training circle. The Master's wheel. This circle will be your world. Your whole life. Until I tell you otherwise, there’s nothing outside of it.”
Don Alejandro de la Vega, played by Antonio Banderas, impatiently blurts out, “Captain Love—”
“There is NOTHING,” Don Diego cuts him off sharply, “outside of it. Captain Love does not exist until I say he exists.”
This exchange from the movie The Legend of Zorro captures an insightful lesson: before we can focus on our ultimate goal, we must first dedicate ourselves to mastering the fundamentals.
The training circle symbolizes the layers we need to master before reaching our prize, each interconnected with the others.
When it comes to grant writing, we often focus on the prize first: “Let’s apply for the grant and win the resources.” However, there are crucial skills and habits to master beforehand if you want your organization to stand out, starting with meeting culture.
Most grant meetings, in general, are poorly run. I understand why this might be the case.
I remember leading my organization or department. The last thing I wanted to do was transition from going full speed, running my programs, doing my thing, to sitting down and doing the meticulous work of prospecting funding sources or filling out a grant application.
So, what ended up happening? You already know the answer.
I pushed grants off.
I waited until the last minute to submit them.
I never seriously pursued new funding sources.
Everything related to grant and RFP work was just … scrappy. Bare minimum. By the books. Safe. Whatever you want to call it.
In my mind, time spent on grants was time taken away from the programs and projects I truly cared about.
When I finally did meet with my team about grants, I had a hurry-up-and-let’s-get-this-over-with energy. I usually acted like I strapped for time, while having the information in my head that the the team needed to continue their work.
Questions from felt a bit … annoying. Small details about grant requirements didn’t seem worth my time.
This energy inevitably affected the rest of the development team. At first, they were low-key excited to collaborate and get their questions answered. But ten minutes into the meeting, they were picking up on the unwelcoming vibe I was putting down.
Now, the team was secretly frustrated. They’d been waiting for this meeting, hoping for clarity and momentum, and it wasn’t paying off. It was a mess.
This is one of the many reasons why meeting culture and grant writing go hand in hand. To write effective grants, you must create an environment people want to be in to talk about those grants.
(This applies to any specialty, not just grant meetings.)
The problem is, no one ever teaches us how to do this. Most of us jump into jobs with a resilient spirit, but we end up repeating the same ineffective meeting formats we experienced before, or worse, we unintentionally create our own bad habits.
Meeting culture is the first ring of the Master’s wheel. If you want to truly exceed reach your organization’s potential in grants and RFPs, you must first acknowledge your meeting culture.