What works better than most meetings?
A couple of colleagues hashing things out over lunch
is better than most meetings.
The other day a friend from Twitter (who shall remain nameless for his own protection) talked about a workplace peeve of his: pointless meetings on topics that could be better handled with a couple of e-mails.
This got me to thinking: What works better than most meetings?
Some initial suggestions:
- E-mail exchanges;
- Three-minute one-on-one conversations in the hall;
- The pithy, friendly communication (e-mail, whatever) that conveys: “Decide and then get back to me” to the people who actually need to make the decision;
- Lunch with a colleague to hash out a project or a problem;
- Individual research combined with a sensible presentation of findings (by e-mail, one-on-one, in a group presentation, whatever).
What else would you nominate?
~
(Lunch image by yoppy.)
Category: The working life
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If you *must* have a meeting; do it without chairs.
I was going to suggest the same thing. No chairs and no leaning up against the wall. It allows everyone to say what they need to say and listen too because everyone is uncomfortable by not being able to sit.
A great book by Patrick M. Lencioni called Death by Meeting is a wonderful resource about the importance of meetings but how to go about them the right way. It’s an easy read and somewhat enjoyable to learn about other concepts to a usually boring but needed task of the workday.
onEnterFrame & Rusty — Good comments. When I chaired a committee on my college’s student council, I would often hold meetings — more like football huddles — in the corridor outside the council office. Five minutes, everybody gets marching orders, and Mr. Big Talker here avoids the temptation to talk all day.
Set a timeframe and make it very short.
If you think you’ll need an hour make the meeting 20 minutes or shorter.
You’d be surprised how quickly and efficiently decisions can be made if the participants know they’re under time pressure. Suddenly all the notebooks are closed and the blackberries disappear.
Divide the meeting into segments and make sure you call the time with a reasonable warning as well. “OK, we’ve got 60 seconds to finish this up. Should we move forward with this project, or not?” And boom, a decision is made.
I work remotely and every time I have a phone meeting with a colleague it ends up going way longer than necessary. I’ve found that instant messaging is really efficient for the little questions and issues that pop-up, and if we do have a phone meeting, we need to have a pre-arranged agenda and a time limit.