This Could Have Been a Slack Message: Diagnosing and Treating Bad Meetings

In person or over a video call, many of us spend a significant portion of our day in “meetings.” We’ve all had the experience of sitting in a meeting and wondering “do I need to be here?” and then possibly following that up with “do any of us need to be here?” Unfortunately bad meetings are commonplace and have led some to call for the banishment of all meetings! If you are somehow working in an environment where no collaboration and coordination is necessary, that might work, but even independent contractors need to meet with their clients on occasion.

Over the years I’ve accumulated different models and tools to diagnose and treat bad meetings and to ensure that the good meetings are happening in a productive way. I’ll share stories of how I’ve used these tools to improve, eliminate, and sometimes even add new meetings to improve the way my team, department and company work.

1. "I've avoided meetings in the past because I've not been in very many useful ones. Working here has shown me that if they're not helpful, it's most likely because they're not being implemented properly. “ - Mat Kent

2. This Could Have Been a Slack Message: Diagnosing and Treating Bad Meetings Mike Clement @mdclement Distinguished Software Engineer at Hunter Industries [email protected] http://blog.softwareontheside.com

3. Too Many Meetings?

4. Too Many Meetings?

5. “It's too gross to even look at. A bizarre smell issues forth from this heap. Eating it won’t hurt you, though...probably”

6. Dubious Food Ingredients

7. Dubious Food Ingredients

8. Gathering Levers

9. Gathering Levers

10. Reason

11. Six Reasons For Meetings Mamie Kanfer Stewart

12. Status?

13. Six Reasons For Meetings Mamie Kanfer Stewart

14. https://www.chrislucian.com/2016/05/mob-programming-q.html

15. Six Reasons For Meetings Connect Align Decide Ideate/Brainstorm Plan Produce Mamie Kanfer Stewart

16. Cadence

17. Length

18. The Four Meetings (Death by Meeting) Patric k Lencioni

19. Daily Check-In

20. Focus on the Work (not the worker)

21. The Four Meetings (Death by Meeting)

22. Tactical

23. Review weekly activities and metrics

24. The Four Meetings (Death by Meeting)

25. AdHoc Topical

26. Examples Define/review SLAs Hiring Pricing model Architecture changes Training/learning approach

27. Topical is Focused on a Topic

28. The Four Meetings (Death by Meeting)

29. Offsite

30. “an opportunity to regularly step away from the daily, weekly, even monthly issues that occupy [your] attention, so [the team] can review the [team] in a more holistic, long-term manner”

31. Invitation

32. Specialized

33. Preparation

34. Agenda?

35. Simple self-facilitation

36. Silent Writing

37. “Democratic”

38. Why Lean?

39. Roman Voting

40. https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu/

41. Remote/In Person

42. Zoom Fatigue?

43. What is zoom fatigue?

44. Cost

45. “Meetings are boring because they lack drama. Or conflict. This is a shame because most meetings have plenty of potential for drama, which is essential for keeping human beings engaged.”

46. Productive Ideological Conflict

47. Vote early and often

48. Unproductive meetings

49. Unproductive meetings

50. Gathering Levers

51. “It's too gross to even look at. A bizarre smell issues forth from this heap. Eating it won’t hurt you, though...probably”

52. Mike Clement @ mdclement [email protected] http://blog.softwareontheside.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/mclement/ EL Summit Oct 24th http://elsummit.com SC Unconference http://scunconf.com Software Crafters Atlanta Find us on meetup.com Resources https://www.gather.town/ 6 Reasons: https://www.mamieks.com/ Death by Meeting: https://www.tablegroup.com/ Liberating Structures: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu/