13 Comments

I can relate to a lot of this. ESPECIALLY the "no agenda, no attendance". I don't know how many meeting invites I've declined that simply had the subject "Question" with no further description.

That being said, I think the expectation/definition of a "meeting" might at least partly depend on the industry. As an example, in the software development world it's often much more productive to get the right people in an ad-hoc meeting than it is to have a long email thread. This often makes up at least 50% of my day, and planning/writing formal agendas etc. would be counter-productive. The advantage of online meetings is that we can record them -- this benefits those who couldn't attend, and serves as a record for later reference if needed.

Muting others -- I did this just yesterday. One attendee was doing that scraping-the-yogurt-container-with-the-spoon thing and I had to put an end to it.

I have many more thoughts on meetings. I'm going to take a walk and calm down. :-)

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Love this. I still remember the first time I walked out of a work meeting. I was in my early 20s and worried that I would get in trouble, but the meeting had trudged past the one-hour mark with no sign of ending and I had a deadline to meet. When there were no consequences for my walkout, I established a 59-minute rule: At 59 minutes, I left. Since then I have attended a gazillion more meetings and run quite a few. A meeting with a timed agenda and clear action items is truly a wondrous thing.

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Pretty sound guidelines but I'd say your prior experiences definitely shaped your policy. Which I get and it's better that you defend your own boundaries than not.

By the way, I need you in a meeting at 3 PM, agenda to follow. :)

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Yassssss.

I just started reading "The Art of Gathering" by Priya Parker, and it's all about curating effective and pointed meeting spaces, be they dinners or business discussions. And key to it is what your person did not do: Ask/define the specific purpose of the meeting, and then design the meeting space/format around that purpose. And to stop doing things because "we've always done meetings that way".

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Apr 20, 2023Liked by Alison

There should be a course on "how to hold a meeting" before anyone is given the privilege of scheduling one, and maybe even attending one. The meetings I dislike the most are the ones where half of the participants are in person and half are on TEAMS. Seldom do the participants on TEAMS feel like they provided any value.

On another note, I had a meeting today...at the spa. The only thing on the agenda was to relax :) I accepted and overstayed my time scheduled, but it was well worth it! No TEAMS. Only in person! I feel like I accomplished the item on the agenda!. I highly recommend it. Giggle.

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