The big post about endless meetings
And how to avoid them…
An article by Ola Möller (MethodKit) & Jordan Lane
Remember when you reshuffled your entire day to make it to that meeting? You may have cut your lunch short, taken a taxi, or ran through crowds of people to arrive at a scene only to find a loose group of people going nowhere fast, talking about nothing in particular. Not every meeting needs to be an intense entanglement of minds…but sometimes they do. Why do you float out of some meetings, while you drag yourself out of others? What makes some work and others fail? This is a post about different types of meetings I’ve encountered and how well they work.
Common meeting mistakes
There are quite a few. Here are some we identified.
- Too long — there is no end in sight.
- Ineffective — don’t bring a knife to a gun-fight.
- Poorly documented — well…you kind of had to be there.
- No follow-up from last meeting — where did this come from?
- Unclear framework & agenda — feeling a little lost.
- Poorly prepared — making it up as you go.
- Wrong location — there is a time and place for everything.
- Missing people — it would be great if _____ was here.
- Blank spaces & blank faces — business-deer in the meeting-headlights.
- Doubling up — deja vu meeting…that feeling you’ve done this before.
- No tools — a painter without paintbrushes or paint.
Meetings are a resource & an expense
The cost of having one 2-hour meeting instead of 1 hour is the double. Many employees cost 20–40€ an hour, consultants around 80€ an hour.
Examples:
- Meeting with 10 employees and one consultant. Around 600€/hour.
- Meeting with three employees and two consultants. Around 300€/hour.
- Internal meetings with three employees around 100€/hour.
The cost for ineffective meetings is massive. The time and money could be used for dedicated time for socialization, less stressful work situation, more effective and profitable organizations.
Different Types of Meetings
“No end in sight” meetings
These could be meetings without purpose and time frame. Or meetings that merge socialization with different type of things around work that comes up.
They still leave you with the feel that it’s necessary for you to be there.
These kind of meetings could either be skipped or seen as a social time for taking a coffee together.
Unprepared meetings
“Okey, so where do we start?”-meetings.
Skype meetings
Unsynced communication is a real drainer. And the difference between good and bad communication is often milliseconds away. Real time communication and Skype & Google Hangouts is that difference. Digital communication is not that good, yet. But if needed, it’s still the best way around.
Insufficient documentation
Meetings where the notes goes onto private notebooks or word docs. That makes it hard to follow up.
Post-it meetings
Post-its in meetings have for a long time been seen as the GRAIL OF CREATIVE WORKPLACES. Sticky notes is a way of documenting ideas. It’s a good way to capture ideas that don’t end up in individual notebooks. The nice thing with these kind of meetings is that they allow more that one person to input on the same time.
But what to write on each post-it to be able to capture the outcome afterwards?
- A photo as a reminder
- A poor secretary have to do the documentation
- People write up what they felt was interesting in their own notebooks
Solutions: Better meeting strategies.
- Time effective— Define and keep the time.
- Agenda —A clear agenda combined with effectiveness.
- Document, document, document — Make notes available to be able track afterwards.
- Follow-up from last meeting — What is there to follow up from last time?
- Prepare — making agendas and plans before.
- Relevant people — Invite people needed to make decisions.
- Meeting strategies — Have strategies to make the most out of the meeting and the people attending.
- Action steps — What needs to be done when and which things to follow up on the next meeting?
- Define outcomes — What will be done til when and who will do it?
Examples
1. Co-designing projects
Prepare post-its with headlines (or use MethodKit for Projects cards) as a way to cluster and categorize the post-its you give input on. In this way it become easier to do documentation afterwards.
Examples:
- Defining a new project or writing a project plan around crucial parts (The picture above shows Idea, Roles & Responsibilities, Vision & Budget. More of these could be venue, team, time frame, marketing, goals and target group.)
2. Using Grids to decide on the next move
We made a tool for designing analogue grids on walls or tables. Read more about MethodKit with Selection Criteria.
3. Define what is prioritized
Use MethodKit cards (or pre-written post-its) that represent different parts (either general parts or specific) of what you need to do in your projects. Divide the table in 3 columns.
- Use the first column for things you agree needs priority.
- Use the last column for things you agree don’t need it.
- Use the middle column for things you disagree on.
Digital solutions
Computers and phones in meetings can be really distracting. But we love when digital tools is well integrated into meetings.
4. Co-writing
Co-writing in a joint Google Docs. Everyone sits in silence adding input to a docs. This is one of the most effective meeting types we know. Building a plan and overview together. This use the best of both worlds. Possibility of being silent and focus along with collaborating together. If a question needs to be asked you have that conversation face to face followed but continuing working in silence.
If you are doing this on a distance, Skype voice calls are good as they keep you connected and productive but without having to think about seeing the others.
Authors
Ola Möller (MethodKit) & Jordan Lane
We would love your recommendation or share if you enjoyed our post!
Others’ posts about endless meetings:
Paul Adams post about Meetings
