Some people are better at absorbing new information, mapping it whatever they know about the situation, and responding. Or they are awesome bullshitters. I'm

Some people are better at absorbing new information, mapping it whatever they know about the situation, and responding. Or they are awesome bullshitters. I'm neither. What I learned to do was to review who was in an upcoming meeting, what the likely topics would be, and what my take was on them. This was in a F100 company where I'd be in meetings back to back for hours. So when the meeting would come up, I sort of had a mental picture of who the players were and what the topics would be, and it helped even if new information was being dumped on me at the last minute. And the other thing I learned to do, the hard way, was to refuse to commit to any decisions made in a meeting until I'd gotten to review whatever new information had been provided and review how the decision would fit into other organizational or corporate decisions. It sounds very bureaucratic, and it probably is, but I frequently found myself to be simultaneously the most junior person in the meeting and the person designated as the key decision maker. It took me a long time to accept that it was ok to say "I don't know the answer to that question and I'm not going to make one up on the spot." It's incredibly important that if you do say that in response that you prioritize answering the question as soon as possible afterwards.