The bigger the company, the more meetings there are. The original working time during the day was taken up by postponed meetings. Many programmers hold meetings during the day and work at night, which makes them seem busy working overtime every day but not producing much. In some companies, this is also one of the important reasons for project delays.
The first company I worked for had frequent meetings for a while. There were morning meetings every morning, weekly group meetings, and department performance meetings. After the performance was announced, we had to communicate individually with team members to confirm the performance. There are also irregular project requirements meetings, group planning meetings, monthly goal unification meetings, operational activity meetings, review meetings, etc. Just writing it out seems very time-consuming to me. This doesn’t even include the time spent preparing for the meeting.
I believe that many programmers work most efficiently at night because they are not disturbed.
Why are there so many meetings?
To answer this question, we must first answer what is a meeting?
What I understand as a meeting means: a group of people gather together to solve a problem or reach a conclusion. Problem solving is co-creation. The conclusion is reached by consensus. Its essence is a business model that trades time for conclusions.
The purpose of a meeting is to create greater value than the time cost through the meeting. We can draw a formula: meeting value = conclusion value – time cost.
With this formula, we can understand that deciding whether to hold a meeting depends on whether the value of the conclusion to society is greater than the time cost paid by the meeting participants (including the preparation time before the meeting).
Most meetings in the company have not calculated the value of the conclusion and the cost of time. This is the root cause of too many meetings. If every meeting evaluated the value of the conclusion and the cost of time, there wouldn't be so many meetings.
How to reduce the number of meetings?
According to the formula, meetings that conclude that the value is less than the cost of time do not need to be held. But the formula is dead. The time cost is easy to calculate, but the value of the conclusion cannot be measured. What should I do?
My own experience is that if a one-time communication can reach a consensus, try not to hold a meeting. Just pass the asynchronous notification. If it is a co-creation meeting, then we need to control the time and conduct it skillfully.
So under what circumstances is group co-creation necessary? Quite simply, this problem cannot be solved by one person, and collective wisdom must be stimulated. Or one-way communication won’t work and requires back-and-forth communication.
For example, the following three situations require a meeting to resolve:
- No one knows the answer to this question. It requires everyone to discuss and come up with answers together. This kind of meeting is best attended by people from different departments. For example, when starting a business, we discuss the company name, product name, logo selection, etc. together.
- This problem is not necessarily difficult, but it has many dimensions and is very cumbersome. For example, the requirements meeting and morning meeting of the project require everyone to clarify the goal and cooperate to complete it.
- This issue involves many interests. For example, meetings between departments to determine monthly goals, etc. It is necessary to consider the needs of multiple departments and formulate a monthly plan for sorting out.
How to reduce meeting time?
Meeting time accounts for more time than the number of meetings. So it requires more skill to open it.
Five issues that lead to wasted meeting time
1. Not prepared for the meeting.
For the organizers, the purpose of the meeting must be clarified before the meeting. Then help everyone prepare for the meeting. There is a method here called the up and down ladder method.
This method is very simple. Write your initial topic in the middle, go up and down a few stairs, and continue to ask: Why do you want to hold this meeting? This can solve the problem of why the meeting is held. Everyone has a clear purpose and is more motivated to participate. You can continue to ask: What should we do? This can clarify what needs to be paid attention to in advance during execution and solve the problem of not knowing what to prepare.
For example, let's say your initial meeting topic is how to solve the company's low attendance rate. Why ensure high attendance? Go up and ask the first why. If you can’t answer it, then the low attendance rate actually has no impact on your business. For example, the technical department of my company works flexibly. Then the purpose of this meeting becomes: a discussion on the implementability plan of the flexible system. Next, ask everyone, think about how you want to set up your own work? Is there a way that is good for both the company and the individual?
2. Meetings have no boundaries.
This boundary includes not only the purpose of the meeting, the people participating in the meeting, but also the rules for participating in the meeting. Not everything requires a meeting. Not everyone needs to attend the meeting. People who will benefit from the meeting need to attend the meeting. The converse is also true, whoever the meeting is beneficial to needs to attend.
3. Meetings always go off topic.
As the moderator, you need to maintain the progress of the meeting. If there is an off-topic situation, you need to remind everyone. Can such issues be treated as legacy issues? Don’t let everyone diverge beyond the problem, stay focused.
4. There is no idea in the discussion.
Sometimes you will find that everyone has no ideas. Where do we start thinking? So the organizer starts to sing a one-man show, which is very embarrassing. Analyze the reason. Is it because everyone is stupid and has no inspiration? no. There is no way to master it. The MECE analysis method is recommended here.
MECE: Mutually independent and completely exhaustive. There are five commonly used classification logics:
Dichotomy: man, woman. Married, single.
Process method: before purchase, during purchase (experience), and after purchase. Customers enter the store, receive them in the store, and see them off.
Factor approach: Seven qualities of great employees.
Formula method: sales = sales volume
Matrix method: four quadrants: important and urgent. The four quadrants of ability and willingness.
If it is a process-type problem, we will use the process method. If it is a multi-agent problem, use the element method. If it is a multi-dimensional problem, use the matrix method. If it’s a question about conversion rate, use the formula method. Taking the formula method as an example, if the purpose of your meeting is to discuss how to increase sales, and you use the formula method to split sales = traffic x conversion rate x customer unit price x repurchase rate. Then you can think of several solutions from the perspective of traffic. Think of several options based on the conversion rate. Thus. Your speech must be effective.
5. The meeting produced no results.
A meeting without a result means that it has not been held. Generally, after the meeting is over, the leader will make a decision. If everyone voted to make the decision, due to the different judgment standards, it may not be able to get a good result.
At this time, you can use the "merged advantage list method". That is, both parties make a list of advantages, list the benefits of their own propositions on a list, and sort the weights, and then combine the first three conclusions of both parties to draw a final conclusion. In many discussions, there is no way to find absolute agreement, only the most likely agreement.
You will find that many consensuses are that everyone has a certain degree of concession, so at the end, you must clearly inform everyone that everyone can discuss it at the meeting, and once the decision is made, everyone must resolutely implement it. No further objections can be raised.
If you want to completely solve the above five problems, it will test the ability of the host. In fact, there are many methods on the Internet about how to conduct meetings efficiently: Six Thinking Hats, Robert's Rules of Order, etc. If many employees are complaining that meetings take too long, the company can provide some training in this area.
PS: Questions 4 and 5 are related to results. Some meetings are repeated because there are no results. This result is not just a conclusion or a method, but also the execution after the method is confirmed. So it’s important to remember that the end of a meeting is the beginning of action.
Some tips for large companies to reduce meeting time
Limit the number of participants and save time and costs
Facebook has a meeting rule: only one pizza can be ordered during a meeting;
Apple: Reject irrelevant personnel from attending meetings;
Google: The number of people in a meeting cannot exceed 8 people;
Amazon: Read the document information before attending the meeting;
I also saw an article describing the concept of a "meeting time bank." Set a maximum meeting time for the department. If this time is exceeded, no new meetings can be scheduled. This forces departments to improve meeting efficiency.
a misunderstanding
Finally, let me talk about a misunderstanding, because there are many management meetings, it is easy to make people think that people who have many meetings have high status. This has led to some managers who obviously can't attend certain meetings, but in order to show their status, all meetings are open to all. As a manager, you must cherish your time. You have to understand that status comes from the value you create for the company, don't be moved by your busy figure