The pandemic made more meetings necessary. Besides zoom fatigue there has been a lot of frustration by different team members that often meetings are not necessary, they could have been avoided with a briefing or people just join because they are afraid that they miss information if they don't. How do you handle meeting feedback for meetings by others to make sure it is not just a random meeting with talking, no agenda, no clear outcomes and mainly information sharing? How do you make your own meetings as efficient as possible?
Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#2For some, the meetings are a way to avoid loneliness. I have sympathy for that, but no tolerance. Every wasted minute is one I have to make up at the end of the day.
My tip: Don't even start the meeting unless you know the criteria for ending it. Most people just run out the clock or try and use the time for something else -- deny them this.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#3Run less or no meetings.
If you have to run meetings, consider the option to temporarily institute an approval process by senior management whereby the thesis for any meeting (proposed agenda, attendees, etc.) is first proposed in private. Then senior management has the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. This alone will force those convening to think twice. If necessary, quantify the cost of the meeting as attendees × (time + loss of focus).
Scheduling-wise, optimize meetings for less productive periods (late afternoon, first thing in the morning pre-coffee, right after lunch, etc.).
Anonymous feedback. Let participants share feedback so they can explain what they liked/didn't like about the format, agenda, hosting and 'other' (always have an other option on surveys!) without appearing quarrelsome to others.
Use the Amazon approach: https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/jeff-bezos-knows-how-to-ru...
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#4grain.co
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#51. Set an agenda and share that agenda with participants in advance,
2. Make sure the agenda includes specific desired outcomes (e.g. We will decide on the scope for release x and choose what gets dropped,)
3. Keep meetings short. Likely, you’ll only need more than 30 minutes to discuss and make a decision. If you regularly need longer than that, you probably have too many invitees.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#6Product Manager here, I set a lot of meetings.
Basically make sure there’s a very clear goal for the meeting and very clear bounds on what is being discussed.
For me, I put an agenda in every meeting invite I send out with:
1. The purpose of the meeting
2. Bullet points on the things to consider
3. The end goal. What is the point we stop discussing
Part of it is also keeping people talking about relevant things.
It’s tough being the person who says “this is a great line of thinking but it’s not relevant to X” but in the end it helps make timeboxed meetings actually stay timeboxed.
Also, depending on the context, often it’s helpful to pre-align with a few key people who might cause potential struggle. Don’t pre-align with another meeting though. That’s just redundant.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#7> no agenda
Have a agenda. Contribute to steering conversations into completing the agenda, once done, finish the meeting. Write down notes of everything, publish to team members / everyone in the company. Try to have less meetings and more focused ones to complete specific goals. Everyone who is in the meeting should have a purpose for being there, otherwise they shouldn't be there but still can see meeting notes if they want to.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#8Make an Agenda.
Send said agenda to everyone preferably the day before the meeting.
Also make the meeting small enough that everyone can be asked to engage with said agenda.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#9I definitely feel the growth of meetings has been a bit insane since WFH started.
Here's what I do:
1) separate technical meetings from process/operations meetings and clearly spell out the difference
2) Write in a narrative format what it is you're trying to accomplish and distribute this ahead of time. Doesn't have to be the often lauded "Amazon 6-pager", but if you can't explain what it is you're trying to accomplish in words you need to think about it a little more.
3) do not be afraid to throw someone else's name down as the owner for a specific action (but make sure to follow up if they aren't/can't be present)
4) Designate primary and alternate owners for actions, and make it clear when you need the primary and when the alternate will suffice. This helps with a) meeting fatigue and b) the increase in volume of meetings caused by no more water cooler talk.
5) do not take critical feedback about meeting structure personally. This one was hard for me at first, since I'm used to more formal structures, but there is no "pure best practice" for meetings - especially in a WFH environment. It's an iterative process.
Re: Ask HN: How do you run better meetings?
#10Run less or no meetings. If you have to run meetings, consider the option to temporarily institute an approval process by senior management whereby the thesis for any meeting (proposed agenda, attendees, etc.) is first proposed in private. Then senior management has the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. This alone will force those convening to think twice. If necessary, quantify the cost of the meeting…
I like the general idea of having less meetings. I try to cut time down for meetings I am responsible for. However, there are ~10 hours of meetings each week that I need to join either because:
1. There is an expectation by management that I should be there in case they have a question (often they do not).
2. I join to make sure I do not miss the critical pieces of information that I need. That is often five minutes out of sixty minutes. But it feels that often written content ahead of time (such as the amazon approach) would alleviate that need.
Do you have any advise on how to deal with inefficient meeting culture by others?
How do you use anonymous feedback? We do not have any tools in place for this but I do like the idea.