Practice #2 for Better Meetings: Holy-meeting-rules!
Yes, it’s Friday! #Friyay! (Using hashtags in a blogpost is probably one of the stupidest things to do, but it’s my blogpost. #and #I #like #hashtags. And lasers). Back on topic.
If you missed practice #1: Determine if the meeting has to be held at all.
It’s almost weekend and I tend to respect that. But since I know you are all craving for more new things to learn, I have amazing news for you: today, we talk about practice #2 on holding better meetings. Let me keep this as short as possible (I might have let you down already on the introduction … my bad).
These four posts combined will show you the path to how to set up guidelines to hold (more) productive meetings. Let’s get started with the basics.
“I have to excuse myself from this meeting because it is a waste of my time.” … my man.
If you work for a company which has already a set of guidelines, that’s great! If your company has posters hanging out with descriptions of these guidelines, hooray!! If all of your colleagues hold on to these guidelines … you wouldn’t probably be spending your precious time on reading this blogpost.
Let’s continue.
There is a huge difference between publishing guidelines, and making sure they are followed. Have you ever experienced someone interrupting a meeting and pointing to one of these guidelines? No — most likely not since it rarely happens. Be that person! Hold the line! You might not get credits immediately for your heroic intervention. But at least you will be remembered as the one person who holds productive meetings. Both by colleagues and management.
I once was in a meeting with a bunch of people. Suddenly, one of the attendees stood up and said: “I have to excuse myself from this meeting because it is a waste of my time”. That guy was right. My hero until today. You can imagine that next meeting with this guy being quite productive, to say the least. But only because he made a valid point earlier with a crucial impact. — Pieter O.
My final experiment I want to share with you is how to get everyone to actually stick to the guidelines: “gamification”. Start a meeting by highlighting one specific rule which — once broken, it leads to having to buy everyone a coffee afterwards.
And not that cheap one; a ‘real’ one.
Key Takeaways
Think of awesome guidelines and fun ways to publish them
Judge colleagues who break the holy-meeting-rules
Gamify the hell out of your meetings!
