55 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: Meetings
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date: 2014-01-21 20:13:05
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tags: [social]
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---
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Meetings come in different shapes and forms. Let's chat about them.
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# Decisions
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Most of the meetings come from the desire to have a decision made. The
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problem is in most cases is that these are not decisions to be made now.
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Software prototyping is cheap. We should just try to build a working
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solution and iterate around. Let's prototype. Get someone most annoyed
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with the problem and leave them to build it. Of course, the clearer
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communication of what they are actually doing the better. It should be
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something like ‘hey I’m gonna build this – okay’ or even ‘hey, I've
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built that, let’s see how it behaves’ Does not need to be “we should now spend
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multiple meetings on discussing how this should be done’.
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# Sharing the knowledge
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Other possible reasoning behind having a meeting can be that of some
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knowledge needs to be shared. And that's a noble cause. Just don't make
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a meeting out of it. Make a lecture. A presentation. No audience members
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interacting with each other. Speaker talking and maybe sometimes
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allowing questions. The knowledge sharing sessions are oftentimes a
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prelude to the decisionmaking meetings. See above.
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# Confirming your ideas
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Sometimes however somebody just wants some confirmation on their idea,
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maybe before building a prototype. Then, there is a good chance that
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they already know who they should ask. No meeting then. Just ask the
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people you know you should ask. 1-on-1 interaction. Maybe somebody will
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overhear and start listening. Notice that the social dynamic is very
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different from the meeting then, two people having a conversation and
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another one politely listening, maybe being invited to the conversation
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after some while. Just look how it works in between the talks on
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conferences. Very different from “everybody says everything” meetings.
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# The meetings that are left
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Also, if for some reason you really need to have a meeting – make
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it opt-in. Just the people who are interested coming. Set the timer.
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There is one I particularly like - a clock showing amount of money
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wasted so far by this meeting.
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## Post scriptum
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[37 signals on meetings](https://m.signalvnoise.com/meetings-are-toxic/):
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These folks have the idea of every communication should be async and read
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when convenient, hence their emphasis on email. That gets you to really
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think of your proposal and really describe it, which is good. To stop and think, RFC-style.
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