Interlude: Meetings, Conversations, and Calendars
Have you ever had one of those meetings that ended early and the meeting host said something like "I'm giving you back 20 minutes"?
I've always disliked those statements. Why?
I think that meetings should not take time from people. Instead, I think that meetings should be meaningful events in which people share their time for a common purpose.
When people share time for a common purpose, they are more likely to appreciate the event and to respect the attendees who are also sharing their time. And those feelings of appreciation and respect foster collaboration and meaningful relationships.
After hearing a friend say that she had 12 back-to-back meetings one day (😮), I've been giving a lot of thought to meetings. As a solopreneur, I'm fortunate to have complete control of my calendar. I recognize that not everyone has that luxury, but my fortune means that I can do something to help.
Now I'm rethinking my approach to scheduling meetings so that I can reduce the meeting burdens of the people I work with. And less time in meetings means more time for writing.
Here are a few things I'm experimenting with:
Scheduling a meeting for 45 minutes instead of 1 hour (or 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes). I like the idea of bringing back the breaks between classes that we had in high school so that we have a time buffer to transition to our next meeting or grab a snack.
Encouraging walking meetings when possible.
Having stand-up meetings (or quick check-ins over the phone).
To help you rethink your approach to meetings (and give you more time to write), I've put together another themed issue of this newsletter for you.
Let's get to the good stuff...
💌 Round-up
👓 Reading
A Quick Way To Cut Meetings in Half
"Require that anyone on your team who is scheduling a meeting include the total cost of the meeting in the meeting invite. To do this, they will need a basic hourly rate for each level of the team, which could be the same for everyone or set by level...This practice brings a lot of awareness about both who needs to be in the meeting and how long it should be, it also makes the cost of everyone’s time together clear."
🎧 Listening
Seth Godin — The Pursuit of Meaning, The Life-Changing Power of Choosing Your Attitude, Overcoming Rejection, Life Lessons from Zig Ziglar, and Committing to Making Positive Change (#672)
I recommend listening to this entire podcast. But if you only have a few minutes, fast forward to 1:19:35 to hear Seth's thoughts on having conversations versus having meetings. Teaser: "So conversations need to happen. More meetings need to happen never."
🧰 Tools
Calendly
Do you want to avoid the back-and-forth emails trying to set up a time to meet with someone? I started using Calendly a couple of years ago, and the tool has saved me from spending a lot of time managing those scheduling emails.
💬 Quote
“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.” – Patrick Lencioni
📝 Challenge
Take a look at your calendar for next week. As you look at each scheduled meeting, ask yourself whether that meeting is really necessary. If it's not necessary, cancel it.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
