(Lap)topless meetings
One reason I decided to work for myself 11 years ago was to avoid going to meetings. At one place I labored back in the early 90s, I was astonished to discover a few months into the job that several people did nothing except attend meetings. I’d have stuff to do (“Ahhh!!!”), but they’d settle into a conference room chair like they were slipping into a Barcolounger to watch a few hours of college basketball (“Ahhhh…”). Now, at the few meetings I do attend, things have gotten even worse, because the meeting weenies aren’t even paying attention. They’re fiddling with their Blackberries. They pretend to work by attending a meeting — while simultaneously pretending to work by sending email. It’s a two-fer for the TPS report crowd. Three cheers, then, for the folks at Adaptive Path, who have banned laptops and wireless devices from their meetings, according to 43folders. The goal is to get people to focus on both the task at hand and the people across the table. Meetings are becoming more productive, the Adaptive Pathers say. Maybe now they’ll also become less numerous. Related: Merlin Mann has 9 tips for running more productive meetings.
I totally agree with the goal of having more productive meetings (and fewer meetings). But I take a different approach than the one you describe. I’m not for banning things such as Blackberries, laptops, etc. That’s the cheap and lazy approach. It’s very Soviet Union.
If you want meeting attendees engaged and focused, then it’s your job to engage them. Make sure you are more interesting than whatever else they might want to play with. If you can’t be interesting enough, then don’t have the meeting – nobody cares.
Dan,
I found you on another blog tonight and I’m up WAY too late reading your ENTIRE blog back to day one, or so it seems. You hooked me with your TED story of your youthful indiscretion of attending law school. I, too, in a moment of complete youthful oblivion, decided that was the next logical step at 23 years old, after graduating from AU in your neck of the woods.
I have to crack up at this entry because I worked for a firm that seemed sadistic to me. They held meetings at 7 a.m. on Mondays. They accomplished nothing at those meetings except a dog and pony show of the partners circle jerking each other and admonishing associates for not having business plans. (Can I say that stuff on the internet? It’s too late and I should be sleeping instead.)
The real kicker was that they would go through these cycles of no meetings because they were too damn early and even the partners didn’t want to come. I really think they were to watch the associates squirm to have to be ass in seat that early after a weekend ready to present some made-up legal topic. After a long stretch of months of having meetings, associates would show up and we’d get a call an hour later saying hey, no meeting today, sorry. It really motivated me to want to be there, I have to tell you. So much so that I nearly got fired over Monday meetings. I would totally forget half the time and step off the elevator onto our floor in full view of our glass boardroom where they could all see me with my triple shot 7 pump venti mocha. Ooops. Eventually, after being in trouble a few times for that and having to apologize to the board, I did it again, only I was so tired of asskissing and apologizing that when I reached my parking spot and it dawned on me that I was way late (like an hour and a half late) for the Monday meeting, I turned around and went home and said my tires were slashed. I couldn’t say I was sick, because we weren’t allowed to call in sick…we’re associates! Needless to say, a snarky paralegal saw me and ratted me out and I was threatened with my job and told what a horrible display of judgment that was. I admit, lying is not a good idea and I learned my lesson. However, I could not believe the big deal that was made about those meetings where I never gleaned one useful thing from anyone. They basically talked about what they were going to do…when they could just be doing it. It did not involve teamwork. They were just being show horses.
I no longer work for that firm, but that is not why. I actually continued working there for about two more years after that.
I am a new solo practitioner and a coach for women lawyers who are looking to define success on their own terms and stop going to meaningless meetings.
Great job on the blog. Oh, btw, you’re not even six degrees separated. I am in the same circle as many of Pam Slim’s friends. I saw her name in your writings.
Good luck with the new book!