All Meetings Are A Vain Waste Of Time - No Exceptions!

[WJK]

meetings can be amazing. I host a 5-15 minute meeting every day with my employees.
I know that is my chance to lay out policies and address issues. They know that is their chance to bring up anything that concerns them.

We also hold a 1 hour meeting each week to go over goals and milestones and discuss progress for the week.

After that no more meetings. People like to use meetings to escape shitty jobs and avoid boring work that doesn’t drive them. Shitty, inefficient meetings are a symptom of a bigger issue in the organization.

I have a meeting every morning for just a few minutes. That way I know what each person says they accomplished the prior day, and I line up our workday. We talk over who is going to do what -- and how. We go over their materials list to make sure they have what they need for their assigned jobs. My white-board, where I record all of this, is legionary around here. After a job hits my list, it must be "done-done" before I erase it. That way I don't have a bunch of half-completed jobs hanging around. Also, I know how much actual work each person is accomplishing. It's a point of pride for everyone when I erase a big project off of the board. This tracking system makes my life simpler.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ernman]

After a job hits my list, it must be "done-done" before I erase it. That way I don't have a bunch of half-completed jobs hanging around. Also, I know how much actual work each person is accomplishing. It's a point of pride for everyone when I erase a big project off of the board.

Outstanding feed back mechanism. And as we've learned from Atomic Habits a great immediate satisfaction to reinforce good habits. Do you writing aging numbers on the items on the white board?

 

[xmartel]

Face to face meetings with the team are essential. IF done properly.

We have a weekly team meeting and it's done wonders for us. Tons of progress made every week.

Everyone should read Traction by Gino Wickman. By far one of the best books I've ever read.

 

[WJK]

Outstanding feed back mechanism. And as we've learned from Atomic Habits a great immediate satisfaction to reinforce good habits. Do you writing aging numbers on the items on the white board?

I use symbols on my board as the item ages. And I usually assign an assistant if it isn't getting done. By creating a joint job, it really puts some pressure on both of them. Especially when I openly ask each of them how it going and what the sticking points are. They really squirm.

Another way is to ask if anyone wants to switch jobs for the day. The negotiations to switch are sometimes laying-on-the-floor funny to watch. At times they team up to knock out one job and then the other. It doesn't matter to me. I just want the work done.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[nyc217]

Bored? Lonely? Simply can't be bothered to work? Why not hold a meeting?! It will make you seem busy and feel important, whilst achieving absolutely nothing whatsoever! Hooray!​

Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!! I'm so angry right now, I knew it, I told him as much. Why do you want me there?

What will we discuss?

What's the end goal of this meeting?

It's important that you're there!

You need to meet the team!

There's a lot of money on the table!

Seriously, I am never, and I mean NEVER, going to another meeting as long as I live, unless I'm being paid to be there, or it's with the Queen or something, and even then...

I've just wasted over four hours of my life, travelling to, sitting in, and returning from a meeting that could have been summed up in either five emails, or a five minute phone call.

The only good that has come from this, is that I now have that policy in place...

Hey Roli, can we have a meeting about XYZ?

Is there anything about XYZ that cannot be summed up in five back 'n' forth emails, or a five minute phone call?

Erm, I guess not.

Great, well let's do that instead then!

Has there ever been a productive meeting in the history of meetings? Is there ANY reason to EVER have a meeting?

If so, please, pretty please with dainty little cherries on top, enlighten me.

- rant just about over :-(

LOL

I truly laughed while reading through this thread because I am in the thick of it right now. I actually had my TRUE FTE two weeks ago because of this; that's how much I freaking hate them. But that being said, I have a love-hate relationship w/ meetings since they motivate me to GTFO.

Long story short, I clocked over 15 hours of meetings w/in a 40 hour work week at my job where I am a software developer. I remember, it was a Wednesday and had over 6 meetings in one day. That's close to 6 hours of meetings for that day!

The worse part about that is, all of those meetings could have been easily handled via email, within 2 or 3 email exchanges at most, and there were zero takeaways for improving productivity or more importantly delivering real value to our customer.

Granted there are instances where meetings are important; however, the vast majority just create massive frustrations for me.

Glad I am not the only one!

 

[deepestblue]

The board of directors were mostly business owners who made their own schedules. I'd sit there in the meetings imagining I had time freedom like them. It helped tremendously in retrospect. They gave something to aim for.