Thread by @WhatAintInside

Meetings

I've been a corp citizen for 15 years now. I've learned that most meetings really can and should be an email.

1:1 meetings are good - they are the quickest way to sort out any kind of a question, discussion or argument. If you send an email, and the reply comes back with more questions than you had statements - time for a call. Don't play email tag.

Status meetings are also good, but must have an agenda. When you need to quickly communicate across a group what has been done, and you don't care about a paper trail, meetings == great.

Scheduling meetings are also okay, but you must have an agenda and concrete list of tasks. Either folks in your meeting know what they should be doing, and this is about communicating to others, or *you* know what others should be doing. Spread/assign the tasks and get out.

Here's what meetings are awful for - figuring out what to do. The committee. This is where all the memes are for. This is real. There is no action, no accountability. or ownership. Most won't speak up, but some will gladly provide counterpoints to any tangible proposals.

The solution is simple. Split a problem into subtasks, and empower the owners to make and document decisions. Have others provide written feedback. Only meet if necessary to resolve differences, and try to stick to 1:1 or as small of a group as necessary to address a concern.

Any meeting longer than an hour is probably not going to get anywhere. Stick to 45 minutes. People get tired. Most join meetings very tired already.

Any meeting with more than 3 agenda items is not going to get anywhere. I once was in a meeting with 15 agenda items and 60 minutes. 3 minutes per discussion point?

Any meeting with more than 3-5 people is usually extremely generic and shallow in terms of subject coverage -> a waste of time.

The worst are the 20+ meetings. A meeting where everyone except for two folks is silent and that seems to go on forever. These are usually some kind of planning or worse, planning to plan meetings.

Another bad variety is the "external update" meeting. This is close to "planning" variety. 20+ and a shallow slide deck that gets monotonously read out. If you're really unlucky, you'll have one or two folks continuously interrupting as well, so you'll never see the end.

I mean, I have eyes. Send me the deck. Send me your PPT notes. This isn't an audiobook. If I have questions, I'll have time to think and formulate these. And I bet I can skim over your deck faster than you can read one slide.

Useless and bad meetings are a real productivity killer. Personally, two bad meetings and I'm done. I'll feel frustrated and completely drained, I won't be able to go deep into a problem that day.

Pro tip: don't attend optional meetings. If you someone needs you to be there, you won't be optional. If organizing, stick to the smallest set of people necessary to be productive. This is almost never more than 3-4 people.

Pro tip 2: don't attend meetings that have unclear agenda or an agenda that doesn't seem to correlate to anything you're doing. If organizing a meeting, it should be obvious to everybody why they are there.

Pro tip 3: don't waste your time. If you a meeting is a waste of time, get out or just don't join again.

Pro tip 4: delegate. There comes a time in every engineer's life when he or she starts getting brought into discussions, and it feels refreshing, but don't let that get into your head. Use your time wisely, and let others step in if they are more appropriate. Don't be a funnel!

Pro tip 5: send slide decks ahead.

Pro tip 6: don't *ever* read-off slides. Summarize or highlight the most important point or outcome.

Pro tip 7: no animations. Always allow your audience to see the full content of the slide.