Tips for effective meetings

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.
Thomas Sowell


I just heard about a new toy we’ll be getting at work. It’s a videoconferencing system that will “allow for virtual meetings that look, sound, and feel as if colleagues are just across the table.”

That sounds interesting.

“The pilot project aims to reduce travel costs, improve work-life balance, and lessen carbon footprint.”

That’s all well and good, but can it accelerate the speed of business?

“It accelerates the speed of business, letting you connect at a moment's notice when you have to meet eyeball to eyeball. I think what we'll find is that it will be justified if for no other reason than that."

If your organization is like mine you live and die by meetings, and anything that makes that process more effective is welcome. But getting people together is only the first step towards a successful meeting. Many people think of meetings as a necessary evil. There are too many of them, they’re too long, they don’t get to the point, there are too many of the wrong people in them, there are too few of the right people in them, somebody always does all the talking, the donuts are stale. The donut problem is beyond the scope of this post, but the rest of these complaints are easily fixable with a few helpful tips. Apply these basic principles and you may even start to find meetings… valuable!

Recognizing Innovation

I work for a large multinational software company outside of Seattle. We pride ourselves on being innovators, and indeed many of the things we take for granted in the technology world today were created by this company. My job is in IT. One of our primary goals is to use the company’s software to run the company’s business, and in that we are very successful. In fact, I and other members of our team are often called on to speak to leaders of other companies about how we leverage our products to manage the nuts and bolts of our day-to-day operations, and how they can do the same.

Just last week I was in a meeting with developers and managers from our extended team where we tried to agree on a technical solution to a fairly straightforward problem, and the lead developer for the solution under discussion said that if we adopted his methods it would help us to support future innovation. His proposal used off-the-shelf software built by our company to manage data tracking with a minimum of customization. My question (unspoken, because it was not relevant to whether or not we would agree to use his code) was whether or not modifying an existing product can ever be considered “innovation”.

Webster’s Dictionary defines innovation this way – 1: to introduce as or as if new; 2 (archaic): to effect a change in; 3: to make changes. Under this definition our developer certainly could claim to be innovative. But in my mind something was clearly missing.

Welcome

Most everyone with any experience in the world of work has seen the positive effects of good leadership and the unfortunate consequences of bad leadership. It may be hard to understand what makes bad management, but in the timeless words of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when attempting to define obscenity, “I know it when I see it”.

It’s my hope that you will find this blog helpful in recognizing and applying the traits that strong leaders and managers share, and avoiding the pitfalls that you will find on your journey towards excellence.