Meetings ARE expensive

Poorly run meetings drain people of their energy (sometimes of their very soul)! A bad meeting can easily sink the productivity of team members for an entire day, sometimes for a lot longer! That could be worth thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

People participating in your meeting can’t be doing something else – like the things on their To Do list adding value to the company! To get a feel for how expensive that is, imagine multiplying the billing rate (or some other measure of hourly value) of all the people there by how long the meeting is. A 2 hour meeting with ten developers might be worth thousands of dollars in lost revenue!

Meetings CAN BE powerful

Live communication, when done right, is dramatically (10x!!!) more effective than asynchronous communication (email/Slack). There is no better way to rapidly iterate and resolve complex problems that require a variety of perspectives.

Use the right communication method

Meetings are not the only form of communication. Each form has its own proc and cons. Use the right tool for the job…

Need	Tool
Not time-sensitive status update, info, or simple question	Email
Time-sensitive status update, info, or simple question	Instant Message / Slack
Not-simple questions that could be answered quickly	<15 min phone or video call
Not-simple questions, discussions requiring lots of back-and-forth and benefiting from reading body language	Live meeting (if virtual, w/ cameras on whenever possible)

Best practices for participating in meetings

1. Prepare: Take 1-5 minutes to review whatever prep materials were sent ahead of time.
2. Speak Up: If you were invited to a meeting it should be because your perspective is valuable! Share it!
3. Make Room: If you’ve spoken already, or if you tend to speak a lot at meetings, make a conscious effort to make room for other people to speak. Think who else in the room might have a valuable perspective and consider politely asking them for their opinion when you finish up your next remark.
4. Stay On Topic: It is easy to go on tangents! Be sure anything you bring up contributes directly to the meeting’s stated objective.
5. Stay on Time: The meeting organizer isn’t the only one who needs to watch the time. Do your part to stay on time by keeping your statements short and to the point and saving some content for a followup discussion or email.

Best practices for running meetings

1. Prepare: Take 1-5 minutes to clearly identify and communicate:
   1. Objective: the outcome you want to achieve
   2. Agenda: the things you’ll talk about to reach the objective
   3. Attendees: invite only the people who need to be there to meaningfully contribute.
2. On Topic: When the conversation wonders off topic, politely redirect conversation back towards the Objective.
3. Stay on Time: Keep an eye on the clock and make sure you move through your agenda promptly. If someone starts slowing things down then you should almost certainly – very politely – move things along with a statement like “I’m looking at the clock and want to make sure we cover everything. If there is more we should say on this topic, let’s follow up via email or in another meeting…”
4. Inclusive: If you invited someone to a meeting, odds are it is because they have valuable perspectives. Try to call on everyone there to get more perspectives. Make everyone feel safe to interact.
5. Make & Document Decisions: Meetings need to end with concrete decisions made and action items assigned. Someone (probably you) needs to write up the key decisions and action items in a follow-up email. You do not need to provide a transcript of the meeting (that’s what recordings and software is for)! You need to show what everyone will need to remember later, not all the intermediary steps. This is particularly helpful in meetings with customers/clients!