craigaspinall.com

12 Nov 2010 - Meetings are toxic

That is the title of a chapter in Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s (37signals) book, Rework, and I have to admit that I agree with them. I’ll also admit that I’m a little jaded by the number of unproductive meetings that I’ve attended in my career, so my view may be tainted!

One of the key points in the book is that meetings are terribly expensive. A one hour meeting between 10 people is a 10 hour meeting. That’s before you factor in the cost of stopping what your doing, or any preparation work. It’s at least a day and a half of productivity gone! Sadly most people don’t think about that when they book meetings.

There are three problems with most meetings that I attend:

  1. The wrong people: There are usually too many people and often key individuals (decision makers and/or subject matter experts) are missing. What’s the point of holding a meeting if you can’t get the information you need and reach a decision?
  2. Poor facilitation: I cannot criticise anybody for not defining a clear agenda, with defined goals/outcomes, and time boxing effectively. I am not very good at it either. At least I’m cognisant of that fact and try to mitigate it by not calling meetings! I use face to face discussion, phone calls, IM or e-mail instead.
  3. The length: Most of the meetings I attend are at least an hour long. The majority of attendees are bored in half that time, because the outcomes can normally be reached in half the time if the right people are there and the meeting is well facilitated.

I don’t agree with everything that David Heinmeier Hansson says, but there are some things where I think he is spot on, and this is one of them. Next time you go to book a meeting, please weigh up the cost and think about whether there is a better way to achieve the outcome you want!

Newer Posts

Older Posts

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Copyright ©Craig Aspinall 2011