Meetings as a productivity and motivation killer

Meetings. Ah, those meetings. You know those meetings where you have been invited only because someone might have something to ask from you. Meetings which take more than an hour without a coffee break. Maybe you are more familiar with live meetings where there is not enough seats for everybody. Meetings where phones are ringing, people answering the calls, or two of the seven participants are speaking while 5 other are not listening and are typing and doing something on their laptops.

Fortunately this has little changed since remote work. Still way too many people invited to the meeting, only one has camera on, crying babies, barking dogs and some kids and pets making noices too. Then someone asks from another an opinion, everyone waits, then finally he gots his microphone on and says the magic words "sorry, I missed that, can you repeat". Gotta love those meetings.

Tight Schedules

In a companies and especially teams where you have a lot to do, huge backlogs and tight schedules, it would be crucial to optimize the productivity time and minimize the clutter. With clutter I mean meetings. There is no excuse to call a meeting for whole team, let's say 10 people, if only 2-3 people needs to update with eachother. Stop that, you are killing the productivity and most likely the motivation of the team members. Every interruption takes at least 15-30 minutes afterwards to get back to focused to the task. In the meeting it's pretty usual that if possible people keep working on their tasks, but it's not the same, there are people talking, maybe even arguing next to you and in a meeting you cannot put headphones on.

If over half a working time goes to meetings, how can anyone assume that work is going to be done on time, geez.

Wasting Time

There has been more meetings than I can remember, where was no prewritten agenda or notes what we are going to do in the meeting, and the one who invited all doesn't know in the beginning of the meeting what he should say - if he is available to join in the first place. One project manager in my career was the most important person in the room. He organized a meeting for the whole team, and when he got a phone call he took it, did he go to another space? Of course not, all the six people in the meeting needed to be quiet and waiting for him to finish his call. No it was not an urgent call.

Another nice way of wasting time in meetings is to always schedule 1-2 hours and not to finish ahead of time, eventhough all the matters has been handled.

Better meetings

If you are calling the meeting, write at least few lines to the invitation about what you are hoping to get solved and discussed in the meeting - why are we having the meeting. Schedule only the time you need. Sometimes it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or so. You can schedule and reserve 45 minutes, but end after 15 minutes is all the matters are handled.

Over 45 minute meetings which are going to continue at least 30 minutes on top of that, keep breaks. It's really hard and exhausting to stay focused in the long meetings especially if you are not the one talking all the time or you need to learn something. I have had days full of 1 hour meetings, which each got at least 5 minutes overtime and no breaks - one cannot handle that very long.

If the meeting is online, only the ones who are talking should have mic open, others muted - no background noices. I do recommend to have your webcam on, the whole team, it's easier that way and you can see facial expressions.

Especially on live meetings, turn your phones on mute. If you are waiting for someone to call you, use vibration mode and tell in the beginning of the meeting that you may need to take a call.

All the participants in online meetings should have good internet connection, decent microphone and webcam. Some level of training would be also nice, so everyone would know how to share the screen, slides, unmute/mute etc. Same person cannot have the same issues in every meeting from week to week - at least help each other.

If you need to make decisions, don't ask everybody. Collect the answers and knowledge you need from everyone, but for the meeting, invite only the bare minimum amount of people.

Have meeting notes. Was it daily, weekly, retro or anykind of meeting, please.. for your sake take meeting notes. Decisions which are not written anywhere are not decisions.

Ending the rant

Meetings are crucial, but so is the time, productivity, and motivation of the team members. Don't waste anyones time - if possible save at least yours by not joining meetings you don't feel important to have your presence.