So, after my last entry detailing what this blog would cover, specifically failure, I was asked if I'd actually post something substantive. Well, this may be a loose interpretation of that request, but this is blog about failure. Specially, meeting failure.
At my current company, they like meetings. It varies by group/division, of course. Some really aren't that bad, others are horrendous. On the whole, though, the culture is so meeting-centric you'd think you'd walked into a company five times its size of 300 people.
Thankfully the people actually doing real work (devs and QA) are spared most of the worst of it, but anyone with 'manager' in his name (this includes me) seems to spend nearly his entire day in meetings. This begs the question of "When do these people do any actual work?"
Now, because many of us spend nearly our entire day in meetings, the etiquette we exhibit is pretty crappy. If you're in meetings all day and you do have some other work to do, it's likely you'll try to do it in one or another of your meetings. It also means as you run from meeting to the next, it's likely one here or there will run over and you'll be late to the next. Lastly, since people are so busy with meetings, it's often the case that people feel the only way they can get a bit of someone's time is to schedule a meeting, even when the more appropriate action would be to walk over to that person's desk for a five minute chat.
So, after having complained again and again, I decided to write up a little set of guidelines for meetings. Of course, this is the type of thing you find on many blogs. Neat, little tidy guidelines that promise to solve all your problems.
Well, the problem in the real world is that you write something like this and well, no one listens. The last group I was in was tolerable in its penchant for meetings. The group I've been with the last three months, not so much. Sure, I've complained. Many, many times. I've now written these guidelines, which I passed along to my Director. But so far, I haven't had any measurable effect. So what does this mean? How do I react to this "failure"?
Well, I do a couple things.
If I'm sitting in a room waiting for others to show up and no one is there within 10 minutes of the official meeting start, I go back to my desk and send an email to all attendees saying "I guess this meeting isn't happening. Please reschedule."
If I'm running a meeting, I invite the minimal number of people possible.
I always show up to meetings right on time, even if it means I'm usually waiting for 5 minutes. And I made somewhat pointed comments about others being late (probably just pisses people off, I'm sure).
When it's time for the meeting to end and people are still blathering on, I stand up from my seat. I don't always immediately leave, but sometimes I do.
So, basically, I'm at least raising awareness of some of these issues. You can't mandate behavior, so in an instance like this I think the best you can do is follow Gandhi's advice "Be the change in the world you wish to see." Exhibit the behaviors you expect of others, speak up when people are acting contrary to what you think are reasonable expectations, and most importantly try to get the ear of someone in a position of authority (in my example my Director).
In any event, here are my general guidelines:
At my current company, they like meetings. It varies by group/division, of course. Some really aren't that bad, others are horrendous. On the whole, though, the culture is so meeting-centric you'd think you'd walked into a company five times its size of 300 people.
Thankfully the people actually doing real work (devs and QA) are spared most of the worst of it, but anyone with 'manager' in his name (this includes me) seems to spend nearly his entire day in meetings. This begs the question of "When do these people do any actual work?"
Now, because many of us spend nearly our entire day in meetings, the etiquette we exhibit is pretty crappy. If you're in meetings all day and you do have some other work to do, it's likely you'll try to do it in one or another of your meetings. It also means as you run from meeting to the next, it's likely one here or there will run over and you'll be late to the next. Lastly, since people are so busy with meetings, it's often the case that people feel the only way they can get a bit of someone's time is to schedule a meeting, even when the more appropriate action would be to walk over to that person's desk for a five minute chat.
So, after having complained again and again, I decided to write up a little set of guidelines for meetings. Of course, this is the type of thing you find on many blogs. Neat, little tidy guidelines that promise to solve all your problems.
Well, the problem in the real world is that you write something like this and well, no one listens. The last group I was in was tolerable in its penchant for meetings. The group I've been with the last three months, not so much. Sure, I've complained. Many, many times. I've now written these guidelines, which I passed along to my Director. But so far, I haven't had any measurable effect. So what does this mean? How do I react to this "failure"?
Well, I do a couple things.
If I'm sitting in a room waiting for others to show up and no one is there within 10 minutes of the official meeting start, I go back to my desk and send an email to all attendees saying "I guess this meeting isn't happening. Please reschedule."
If I'm running a meeting, I invite the minimal number of people possible.
I always show up to meetings right on time, even if it means I'm usually waiting for 5 minutes. And I made somewhat pointed comments about others being late (probably just pisses people off, I'm sure).
When it's time for the meeting to end and people are still blathering on, I stand up from my seat. I don't always immediately leave, but sometimes I do.
So, basically, I'm at least raising awareness of some of these issues. You can't mandate behavior, so in an instance like this I think the best you can do is follow Gandhi's advice "Be the change in the world you wish to see." Exhibit the behaviors you expect of others, speak up when people are acting contrary to what you think are reasonable expectations, and most importantly try to get the ear of someone in a position of authority (in my example my Director).
In any event, here are my general guidelines:
- Meetings begin and end on time
- Only the organizer should be using her laptop. The rest of the participants should either not bring them or keep them closed. Same goes for phones. Either you are present for the meeting or not. Half paying attention and half doing other work wastes *everyone's* tim
- Every meeting should have an agenda which is provided to participants beforehand. If yo haven't prepared an agenda, you don't get to have a meeting. An agenda can be very basic. Minimally, it should consist of a problem statement, what is expected to be decided by the meeting, and sufficient information so that participants can come to the meeting prepared
- Don't use a meeting when ad hoc face-to-face communication will suffice
- The preference should be to keep meetings as short as possible while still accomplishing the goal set out in the agenda.
- Only invite the people that *absolutely* need to be there. Taking a shotgun approach should be strongly discouraged as wasteful and counterproductive (it detracts from other work that participants could otherwise be doing)
- The corollary of rule 6 is that one should not feel obligated to attend a meeting if she feels she doesn't need to be UNLESS the organizer can make a case for why her presence is required
- Certain meetings are special cases and do not need an agenda and rigid form. Brainstorming sessions, etc. Sometimes free-form discussion is a great thing. This should be the exception rather than the rule however.
- Status meetings should be discouraged in general. If the status of a project is not clear to its participants without such a meeting something is wrong. This is the essence of the program manager's role, keeping team members appraised of status and providing artifacts. If a status meeting is required, it should not a general troubleshooting session for the issues. Those should be addressed as they arise.
- If you those in the meeting find themselves saying 'I think this is what person <X> said', the discussion should quickly either move on and a note made to follow up with the individual or someone should go grab the person and bring him to the meeting. It is a waste of time to guess at what people think or said.
- If you are able to attend only a portion of a meeting, state it to the group at the beginning and exit when you need to do so with minimal disruption.
