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Event Determination

Determine, do you really the meeting ?

  1. Now, most of our calendars are packed with meetings. Sometimes being double booked or even triple booked. _But do we really need all these meetings on the calendar? Is this the most effective way to get things done?

  2. Meetings have become this thing where we just have a lot of them, and they don't always feel great. And so there's that question of going does this need to be in a meeting?

So, how do you determine if you really need that meeting or if there's some better way to spend that time?

  • When determining whether or not you need a meeting, there's three things I like to think about:

  • One, what are you trying to solve, really? What's the outcome you're trying to get to? Are you trying to collaborate on a problem? Are you trying to share information with soemone else? Really getting to kind of the crux of what it means to actually succeed in this meeting. What's the outcome we want to get to?

  • Number two, what's the best way to achieve this? You always default to a meeting, so you have to change that behavior. Maybe it could be an instant message. It could be Confluence page.

  • Suppose you work with a team right now that actually spends most of its time in different parts of the globe which is really hard for you to collaborate. So what you done is kind of come up with new ways to collaborate that doesn't involve a meeting.

  • You use things like Confluence to actually co-create documentation around the globe around, you know around the clock. And then use tools like Loom/ Youtube/ Diagram/ Confluence KB to allow us to kind of go and express maybe our thoughts on what's going on.

  • What have I done in the last week or what have I done since yesterday and be able to share that back because it's a lot easier than maybe writing something down or trying to articulate an idea. That's just too complex.

  • These Loom videos and Confluence pages to give an opportunity to kind of figure out how do you want to work the next day and then that way we have only certain touch points.

  • You need to worry about with each other versus trying to have a daily meeting to stay in sync. And finally the third thing you need to think about: who actually needs to be at that meeting?

  • Are you meeting with a person or are you meeting with a group? If you're meeting with a person, is this something that you need to have a meeting for or is it best done through an instant message or some sort of other collaboration means?

  • If it's a group, what are you trying to share? Are you just trying to share information? If you're just trying to share information, maybe that's also done better through sharing out something like a Confluence page and a Loom.

  • Again, when you're thinking about the meetings that you have today, don't default to just have the meeting. Think about how could do this a little differently?

  • If I need help answering these questions, Atlassian has actually come up with kind of a cheeky, fun view of how we can better identify whether or not we need to have a meeting. They call it the "why do I want to call this meeting?" decision tree. So if you walk through it, it kind of gives you these fun areas to say maybe I'm trying to share information or maybe I want to build relationships.

    MEETING_decision_tree

  • And it starts asking me some questions like is this a one-on-one is this just trying to push information out there and it helps you kind of determine whether or not you actually need to hold this meeting.

    • For example, you probably don't need to have a meeting to let's say read through the contents of a Confluence page you just sent. Or if you just don't know any other way to collaborate. Trust me, there are other ways to collaborate that don't involve a meeting.

  • Now the thing is, is this chart is great. It's fun. It's something that Atlassian use. But based on your organizational behaviors your cultural behaviors in your organization, you may actually want to come up with your own.

  • Work with the organization or even just your own team to create a meeting decision tree of your own in order to improve your meeting culture. You can then use your decision tree as a working agreement to eliminate unnecessary meetings and promote better meeting behaviors.

  • Again, find what works best for you. I usually try to lead with if I couldn't have a meeting for this how else could I get it accomplished? Put it into a decision tree to help you kind of think through that.