Meetings & Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done.

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5 min readFeb 11, 2022

Agile Principle: “Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.”

“The art of maximizing the amount of work not done” can be a confusing notion. We’ve all likely experienced the phenomena that happens when we have to sit down to work on a large task. First we need to get coffee, then we need to get our chair just right, then we need the right playlist going, and so on. The same can happen in our meetings, and within our working processes. When we work to trim the fat, and get right to the meat, we gain much more momentum, and can spend our energy on what’s going to bring the most value. Often times we are talking about important items, however, the timing of those conversations may be off. Or the items may be important, but not relevant.

There tends to be a perception that looking busy, or feeling busy is a symbol of success and makes us feel like we’re really doing something. I’d challenge that perspective, and encourage a different view point.

When we are doing the right things, at the right time, there’s no need to scramble, because we’ve had the time to do our due diligence, we can sort the signal through the noise, and can take a breath. This will make us feel less busy (a positive for your stress level), have a chance to follow through (a positive for your productivity) and make you look as cool as a cucumber (a positive all around).

After all, when I go to a restaurant with my family, I don’t care how busy the place looks or feels, I care about whether or not I get what I ordered and whether it’s delicious.

So how do we accomplish this? The first step is, determining whether or not you need the meeting. Do You Really Need to Hold That Meeting? (hbr.org)

The next step is to focus on the most essential items, and not allow ourselves to stray. By doing this we give ourselves the gift of single-minded focused, which helps us to solve what we’ve come to solve. And finally, once we have the right items and people, and are focusing on one thing at a time, we will need to hold each other accountable, and ensure our time together is as valuable as possible.

Focus on the valuable

Focus on knowing when to dig in now rather than taking it offline

Don’t be afraid to redirect or push back if we’re not reaching clarity, or are wandering from the topic (this requires trust, tact and courage)

How do we know what’s valuable? That’s a skill we must develop. By returning to a few simple questions we can build that skill:

Is this related to the agenda items?
Are we diving into implementation rather than direction?
Does the implementation drive the direction?
Does this require more research?
Does this align with our strategy?
What happens if we don’t solve this today?

While Gronk’s diet is an important topic, it’s likely not the right thing to focus on in a huddle during the Super Bowl.

Single-minded focus

Have an agenda, and stick to it.

If things come up from your conversation, and requires more than 1–2 minutes to dig into, it’s likely that we need more information before moving on. Table it, do some research, and have another conversation that’s specific to that item at another time if needed. The Parking Lot is always an option.

Focus on only a couple things at a time.

This allows us to dive deeper to achieve resolution, rather than trying to skim the surface on a lot of things. This may feel counter intuitive, but the more fruitful juice comes from a tighter squeeze.

If Tom Brady were to spend his time learning how to tackle better or kick a field goal, his quarterbacking would likely suffer.

More effective meetings

Everyone should know what they’re there to talk about ahead of time, and prepare. As the old adage goes… “No agenda, no attenda” let’s hold each other to that. Time is money, or so they say. This means starting and ending late, having spectators in our meetings and not coming to resolution within those meetings is actually costing us money. If you’re multitasking, it’s likely you’re not needed in that meeting. Feel free to request the meeting organizer to bring you in on an as needed basis for recurring meetings. Each player of the team knows their role, when they are on the field, they have a game-plan and adjust as a team when necessary. Without this focus, the game may look more like a children’s soccer game, chasing each other and the ball, with no clear direction.

By focusing on maximizing the amount of time we spend on the valuable items and top priorities, we can better solve for those problems, and allow for the rest to sort itself out. If we focus on only a few things, don’t allow for distractions to carry us away, and strive for coming to resolution in a condensed timeframe, we’ll start to see that not only will our calendars lighten up, and the quality of our work increase, but we’ll also see our customers smile more and more. And finally, but having a game-plan, executing on that and making sure we’re holding ourselves accountable within meetings, we will be able to solve problems more effectively and we we’ll be more engaged.

“A common fault is to dwell too long on trivial but urgent items, to the exclusion of subjects of fundamental importance whose significance is long-term rather than immediate. This can be remedied by putting on the agenda the time at which discussion of the important long-term issue will begin — and by sticking to it.” ~ How To Run a Meeting (hbr.org)

Here are the resources I’ve used to help inform my perspective