Explanation:
Meetings serve a few valuable functions: they help organize efforts, prepare people for challenges, and identify problems. However, meetings themselves don’t accomplish tasks and at the end of nearly all meetings, no tangible work has been done.
To be effective, meetings must either add to the team’s understanding of their task and deliverables or gather new, actionable information.
If they fail to do this, they are largely pointless.
The main exception is well executed agile meetings, particularly short, focused morning stand-ups. These can be useful if done right:
- Keep them short.
- Keep them honest.
- Avoid using them as a reporting mechanism for managers. They’re not for compiling data into spreadsheets or lists. Stand-ups exist to help team members stay on track and understand what’s going on.
For managers, here’s an easy rule of thumb to determine if you have the right number of meetings:
If you were off sick, how long would it take for something important to go wrong?
If it’s a week, weekly meetings may be appropriate.
If your absence wouldn’t cause issues, you might not need that meeting at all.
Finally, consider this: do your team members get more done when you’re on holiday? If so, it might be time to rethink how and why you’re holding meetings.
Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.