If you have ever had to work with any number of people, the subject of meetings can’t be strange to you. You have probably had so many meetings today and may still have a number to look forward to. Often, it looks like there is no end and no point to meetings, still attend you must. Meetings can constitute a problem as they essentially waste precious time which could have been invested in actual work.
Tired of endless meetings? These tips by Seth Godin might be just what you need.
Getting serious about your meeting problem
If you’re serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be happy to give you a full refund.
- Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length?
- Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes. Require that the meeting organizer have a truly great reason to need more than four increments of realtime face time.
- Require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don’t, kick them out.
- Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I’m serious.
- If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a fine of $10 to the coffee fund.
- Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you’re done. Not your fault, it’s the timer’s.
- The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.
- Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.
- If you’re not adding value to a meeting, leave. You can always read the summary later.
This is all marketing. It’s a show, one that lets your team know you’re treating meetings differently now.
