to many meetings -> not getting enough done -> hiring spree -> even more meetings -> reorgs to nowhere -> layoffs
High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
41–50 of 524 posts
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon is high documentation, high meetings culture. The documentation is reviewed by peers, bar raisers, and leaders in a process called document read before being official. Edit: Someone asked for more detail on high meeting culture. There are constant meetings between cross-functional teams, various leadership stakeholders, and ongoing operational planning. That is not including your day to day meetings within you…
so the worst of both worlds
Why? I think this sounds great.
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#43My personal policy was "No regularly-scheduled meetings" (which included things like daily standups).
But I worked for a Japanese corporation, so we had regularly-scheduled meetings. I was able to reduce them, though.
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#44My current employer was sold to me as a "high documentation" place. What it means in practice is that if you're trying to do something there are 5 outdated documents describing the decision making process for how the project was run, and no documents about how to actually use the resulting software. Occasionally if you ask how to actually do a task in Slack someone will yell at you that you should have searched for a…
Sometimes (often?) an outdated document is still great and useful and much better than no documentation at all
Equally often it’s worse and a waste of time. And you won’t know which world you’re living in for a while.
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#45What about the low doc, low meeting culture
I'd like a read the code culture. For me documentation is harder to read than code and so inaccurate that you end up reading both anyway.
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#46I wanted to read this article but the sluggish scrolling on the page made me leave the site. I appreciate the approach in the first few paragraphs I read, though. haha
The motion and blurring made me feel sick so I quit reading too!
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#47My current employer was sold to me as a "high documentation" place. What it means in practice is that if you're trying to do something there are 5 outdated documents describing the decision making process for how the project was run, and no documents about how to actually use the resulting software. Occasionally if you ask how to actually do a task in Slack someone will yell at you that you should have searched for a…
I would suggest introducing two things. First, introduce The Diataxis framework ( https://diataxis.fr/ ) for documentation. It makes people think about documentation in a more structured way, and allows you to be more specific in the types of missing documentation. (High documentation cultures are often good with explanation but not tutorials, for example.) Second, I would introduct the idea of a Documentation Portfo…
Diataxis looks interesting thanks for the link
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#48What about the low doc, low meeting culture
What is an example of that working? Just code that speaks for itself? How would you ever know why something was done?
Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#49Re: High-documentation, low-meeting work culture
#50Our work culture's obsession with meetings, which is dwindling, it seems, is due in large part to our desire to perform as part of 'productivity theater.' this has mostly been driven up by wfh. but it's interesting to me that so many people focus on performativity vs. output
Is it dwindling? I think the number of hours of meetings I attended approximately quadrupled due to WFH. Limited conference rooms making > 1 hr meetings impossible was wonderful.
Or are you saying it was dwindling, but it surged up due to wfh? Then I guess I agree, though I’m not sure if it’s due to productivity theater, or physical constraints being removed