Less Time Spent In Meetings, More Time Executing
Less Time Spent In Meetings, More Time Executing
Have you heard about a meeting to schedule a meeting? Check how you can put an end to that obsession of doing pointless meetings and spend more time doing than talking.
Have you heard about a meeting to schedule a meeting? Check how you can put an end to that obsession of doing pointless meetings and spend more time doing than talking.
Among the most tiresome things in large and medium-scale companies are the endless appointments of pointless and unproductive meetings. The real importance of this action is lost when it happens excessively, when it is not guided by a specific focus, with the right people and targeting an action.
In order to avoid falling in that obsession that burns time, patience and productivity, the following questions need to be conscientiously addressed before any appointment.
Why do we need this meeting?
A meeting that starts without a specific purpose just never ends. Sometimes the purpose can be more subjective, such as brainstorming the name of a product, nonetheless there is still an underlying final goal that has to be reached. Will it be to define the scope and chronogram of a project? To pass on the changes sent by the client? To transmit feedback? All these culminate in people who will carry out an action.
Who needs to be present in this decision?
Does Jorge or Aline need be present to reach a decision about what will be done? What is the project that we are talking about? Does this concern marketing or finances? Who really needs to be present in this meeting? Don’t remove unnecessary people from their jobs just to have them listening to you.
How much time do we have to discuss?
To put your daily tasks aside for a little bit in order to discuss important matters is not exactly the issue. The problem is believing that there is all the time in the world to conduct that discussion (and believing that such an amount of time is necessary). A lengthy reunion ends up generating distraction and it does not motivate people to think about agiler solutions. Set an exact amount of time for that meeting and only extend it if you really think that it will ensure efficient results. Most of the times, thirty minutes is more than enough.
What action will we extract from the discussion?
After talking about the subject of discussion, who will do what and what is the deadline by which those tasks have to be concluded? The absence of this final resolution is perhaps the biggest mistake of most meetings that are held. Everything needs to generate an action. During the execution of these tasks, set as well a means of communication between the team members, such as Slack or any other tool that happens to be used by the company.
Being directly in touch with people and leaving a lonely work desk can be an extremely efficient tool to achieve better results, all that is required is some organization and common sense.
By the way, check out my article of Feedbacks.
Adriano Meirinho the CMO and co-founder of Celcoin, a financial services application for those who do not have a bank account. A Marketing Executive with a MBA Degree in Retail Management from FIA-USP and a certification as a Practitioner in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Meirinho has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and advertising, having been part of important companies, such as Oppa and Catho Online, where he received six Top Of Mind awards from 2006 to 2012 and three Ibest awards, in 2002 and 2004.