And to get started …
Where better to start than a New Year’s Resolution?
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m trying to accomplish in the next year, and one of the things I’ve been doing is laying out a calendar of the meetings we’ll have. Years of experience have shown us that we need a certain frequency of meetings to get everything done. But we don’t always use our meeting time well. Gathering people into a room because it’s that day of the month again, and going around and hearing status reports without context or dialog? Doesn’t get people engaged.
So here’s the New Year’s Resolution: no boring meetings. I’m not sure I can pull off being entertaining and creative at all these meetings. At least, no pointless, annoying, time-wasting meetings. The ground rules surely have to include
We all know what we’re trying to accomplish in this meeting.
The right people are present at the meeting. Conversely, people who aren’t necessary for the purpose of the meeting don’t feel like they’re supposed to show up “just because”.
At the end of the meeting, we know what to do next.
If we’re interested in the outcome of the process, then these meetings won’t be boring. We’ll be able to see how these meetings are building up towards where we’re going.
I made this resolution thinking about my work on ThatCon but immediately started thinking about the weekly status meetings I run at $DayJob. Well, those meetings are less than engaging, honestly. I need the information from those status reports and I still feel like that. $DayJob meetings have a handicap in that we’re meeting over a telephone conference line. I’m going to think about that as I head to first status meeting of the shiny new year tomorrow morning.