I’m rereading (listening) to Rework for the 3rd time. It’s been about a month since I last absorbed this artfully crafted piece of wisdom from Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals. People who read my blog know that I hate meetings. I’m ok with the 5 minute stand-ups. I’m ok with the 22 minute meeting, when necessary.
The painful reality is one poorly organized meeting can suck more time and energy than a week of good meetings. How many meetings do you go to in a week? Do you really need to be there? Is there a published goal-based agenda? Not going to meetings is like not watching CNN for a week. If it’s really important, someone will tell you the news. Otherwise, you find yourself commonly hearing the same old thing over and over again. Your time is more valuable than that. Go do something else.
One rule that I have about meetings is it should start on time so it can end on time. We all know that is easier said than done. If you have a daily stand-up meeting, which is timeboxed at 5 to 15 minutes, you can not afford to have people showing up late. They need to show up on time.
But what if there is that one person on the team who does show up late… every… meeting? Do you punish him or her? Let’s make them pay a dollar every time they are late. Do you think that is a good idea or a bad idea? Have you tried it? I have. It surprised me when it didn’t change that person’s behavior. If anything, it just ensured they would be late. Why?
By paying me the dollar, that person no longer felt obligated to arrive on time. Everyone else, while still adhering to the culture of acceptable behavior, arrived on time. Everyone else on the team, felt equally obligated to arrive on time because I was on time. They felt that they owed it to me to be there on time.
So, how do you correct this negative behavior? I like to zone in on something that makes the violator uncomfortable. I’ve made them sing. I’ve made them dance. I’ve stopped the meeting when they’ve arrived late and then made them go from person to person on the team and say “I’m sorry for wasting your time”. This may sound a little over-the-top but they slighted everyone on my team. Everyone else was there on time; they should be as well.
I’m including a link to a TED video with Clay Shirky. You don’t need to watch the whole thing. What 4 minutes starting at 6 minutes 50 seconds. He mentions the study A Fine Is A Price by Uri Gneezy and Alfredo Rstichini in 2000. It is exactly what I’m talking about. It defined the difference between social constraints versus contractual constraints. Nothing like a research study to spice up the next meeting.
After looking at my calendar, I noticed I’m booked solid this Friday. From the moment I arrive until I leave for the weekend, I’ll be in meeting after meeting. Do you think this time could be spent doing more productive things? At present, only one of the meetings has an agenda. I actually have something to do with that meeting so kudos to my colleague on that one. If she’s out, I’ll be running the meeting. As for the other two, if there isn’t an agenda, it’s going to be an example of Parkinson’s Law (Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion). If you suffer from this regular time suck, also known as a meeting, please enjoy the 6 minute video. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.
As mentioned in the video, here is a link to the 22 Minute Meeting Poster. I’m not going to take credit for finding this video. I was commenting on Mark Suster’s blog this morning and found it in the comments. Mark was explaining the right way to cancel a meeting.
What I like about the idea of a 22 minute meeting is it would work, regardless of the project approach.
Are you using Agile, Waterfall, or Spiral? It doesn’t matter. Are you the vendor or customer? It doesn’t matter.
Do you have that one stakeholder who comes to your meeting and finds a way to talk about something completely unrelated? You tell them you need to take the conversation offline but it’s still really annoying. Bla bla bla! It’s important when you schedule a meeting to have an agenda. It’s also really important to stick to it. When in doubt, don’t have the meeting. Check out the video and try to convince me that you have not had this “robot” in one of your meetings.
I’m really disappointed that, for the second week in a row, a key communications meeting was canceled. Though I review the slide deck hours before the meeting, I look forward to the interaction with everyone. I’m sure some across the table from me don’t agree. Some may be relieved they don’t need to look me in the eye and answer questions from me or my colleagues. Unfortunately, regardless if it temporarily relieves their anxiety, it just complicates matters in the long run. You can’t get all of the information you need from a PowerPoint slide deck. You need to read body language and engage with people. In an age of PowerPoint slide decks, conference calls, and Go-To-Meetings, there is still a need to interact with people one-on-one.
Do you want a better relationship with a customer, vendor, or colleague? Then talk to them! Get your butt out of that chair, walk down the hall, drive across town, and engage them. Though you may actually have a need to talk to them about a given subject, take a moment and try to interact with them on some topic other than business. We’re all human. Reach out and communicate!
My analogy is like bringing your wife (or loved-one) flowers (or some other gift). Don’t bring do it because of a birthday, an anniversary, or some other holiday. They expect that. Bring the gift because it’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or because you thought of something that reminded you of them. Now, realize that gift is communication.
Project Management | Derek Huether | July 23, 2010 | 
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