Meetings

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the importance of asynchronous communication, and prioritizing that over synchronous styles. However, when it comes to getting down to brass tacks of exactly how to transition into that type of culture, I haven’t seen a lot of material on the subject. I’m hoping to close that gap some today.

Can we not

I hate meetings. I can’t honestly say I actually know anyone who actually likes them. You know everyone hates them because any time you actually have any benefit come from a meeting you always hear someone say how useful it was to actually accomplish something in the session. That’s how much everyone hates meetings.

So if everyone hates them so much why do we even have them? I’ll tell you why, because we’re lazy. I’m just as guilty as everyone else here, so in a lot of ways I’m talking to myself. If you need something done, or some information, it’s way too easy to just book some time on a calendar with someone and spend some time on that thing that you need. Getting out of meeting culture doesn’t just require knowing how to get out, but a willingness to do your due diligence and have the discipline to get yourself out, and your team.

To do that let’s rip the bandaid off and start with something that could be really controversial.

No Standups

Yeah I said. Standups are useless. Why you may ask? In the corporate setting. standups are nothing more than a glorified status update. You literally wait your turn to tell your progress of what you did yesterday, what you are going to do today, and what roadblocks you have. It is a colossal waste of time.

The solution? If it’s status you are after, you need to rely on your project management tools to keep track of what is going on. So use them. We use JIRA. If you want to know where your team is in the sprint, then go check the sprint board! If your team isn’t providing updates on their stories, then tell them to!

And if none of that works, just send them a chat and ask them to provide an update.

Congratulations you just saved yourself and your team half an hour for every… single… day. Also yes it’s half an hour even if you’re convinced your team only meets for 15 minutes. Context switching kills time.

It could have been an email

I think my calendar is about half filled with meetings that are literally something someone could have just asked a question in an email and gotten a response back from me or someone else. If you are about to schedule a meeting, people will tell you to ask yourself “could this have been an email?” I’m not going to tell you to do that, because that’s the wrong attitude. The right attitude is, “how do I make this into an email?” It’s not a question of if, but how.

It could have been a chat convo

So you started writing that email instead of making a meeting and you realized you don’t wanna send an email that just asks one question. I hear you. That should be a chat on slack, or your tool of choice. Maybe you want to get a whole bunch of information from someone through a series of questions, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t justify a meeting. Let them get back to you when they have time to answer your question thoughtfully. If you do this reliably, you’ll get much better answers, and you’ll create a culture that your team will appreciate much more. You will find that your team will become much more responsive this way.

Documentation

Agile kind of killed good documentation in the corporate world in my opinion, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I’m not saying we should document everything, but let me tell you something a lot of people don’t want to hear. Documentation isn’t a substitute for conversation, creativity, innovation, or connecting with people in a meaningful way. It is, however, a substitute for fact finding meetings, which, let’s be honest, is almost 90% of all meetings.

Make a roadmap for your team and document it somewhere. You should have the next 6 months to a year planned out and kept somewhere. Your org chart? Document it. What is your team working on right now? Go check JIRA. What are they going to work on next? Same thing: go check JIRA.

Do you need to make a decision about something? Make the decision and document it if the decision impacts a large enough group.

The point I’m making here is very simple. It is actually a lot easier to document things and then share that with your audience, than it is to be stuck in meetings all day. So take the time to write it down and share it. The revelation about this isn’t that there are amazing tools that make your life easier, it’s that your perspective must change. Once you decide to document in place of setting up meetings, your view on what is going on is going to change dramatically. You will have more time to do the things that matter, and you’ll have more time with your team. You have to get out of the crazy cycle first, though, and that means making a choice. You must do all of these things instead of continuing to set up meetings, or join them for that matter.

When to have a meeting

Wait, so is there actually a good reason for having meetings? Yes, but it has nothing to do with projects or status, and everything to do with your team. Meet with your team to make sure they are ok. Open up your calendar so your team can book 1 on 1 time with you. Talk about their career goals. If they need your help with something, sit down with them and work through something synchronously because they need your help. That’s what good meetings are all about.