These are fantastic! I've done similar and seen some positive outcomes at work. As the one usually sending meetings - I have been leaning heavily on asynchronous first (teams chat) then if needed we hop into a focused meeting with a clear agenda. It's been liberating to see the reactions that other people like this too instead of another meeting. More often than not we never needed the meeting.
How to Attend Meetings
61–70 of 193 posts
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I also know that in each and every company I have ever worked for, none of this is going to fly. My favourite part of climbing the corporate ladder is finally having enough clout to just say "no". > I have been asking for agendas; I have asked for clarification on what to do to prepare; I have even suggested Try "I am unable to attend meeting without an agenda. Let me know when one has been posted." in your decline…
And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting. Sometimes it's not just about whether others think you should be there.
I echo the parents sentiment - I don’t need to be there for a one hour meeting while 12 people give a perspective on a topic, but if you make the wrong decision I will say no.
My job as a higher level manager is to ensure that whoever is there on our behalf avoids stupid decisions being made, and if I can’t delegate that then I need to go myself. Sometimes its unavoidable, and sometimes politics prevail but 95% of the time making my priorities clear to my team and being consistent in my them has the correct outcome.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There wasn't a SINGLE ONE that would tolerate someone declining EVERY MEETING when the culture does not align to the ideals this presentation outlines. Exactly. Love the deck. Like you, agree with many things. My similar suggestions (but a little looser): 1. Long meetings need agendas. But don't expect perfection. You can get away with no agenda in a short (30 or less) meeting. 2. Very large meetings need a DRIVER…
> I hate a big meeting when someone says something like "so who wants to bring something up" - no no no. This makes the meeting end really quick when nobody has anything to discuss right? For some people the only way you are ever going to get them to bring something up is by asking in a meeting.
That no one has anything almost never happens.
I support the idea of bringing something to table. Instead maybe ask for simple 1-sentence ideas over email (or chat/etc.) in advance and then you use those as the driver of the meeting.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting. Sometimes it's not just about whether others think you should be there.
> And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting. Unless your head is on the line, why do you care?
As a manager or even a technical leader, your head IS on the line, it just might not seem so obvious.
Rollout delays, customer debacles, etc all shape your image to promo panels.
If you’re just a junior engineer, it’s not like it will be held against you, but you certainly missed an opportunity to demonstrate ownership and make a name for yourself as one of the 1 in 20 people who aren’t NPCs.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#65Elephant in the room: what about meetings where the purpose is to receive updates, maintain context on project progress, etc.? Yes, sometimes (often!) these meetings can be emails or messages — but sometimes it's important to be able to ask or even hear others ask questions, and to get a sense of how people are feeling directly. This seems to be missed by the author.
Using meetings to sync on status is an anti-pattern. Questions can be asked in tickets and shared documents. True feelings are rarely shared in large forums anyway and are only reliably shared in private 1:1 sessions.
Everyone having a common understanding of the state of the world is important and not always efficient, or even possible, to do it async. Ideally, everyone would have good response times on messages and emails, always write clearly, but this is the real world, and you can't guarantee that.
Often, tickets bounce back and forth between people for weeks when a quick meeting will answer things quickly. Sometimes this is best to happen in Status meetings IMO.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting. Sometimes it's not just about whether others think you should be there.
> And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting. Unless your head is on the line, why do you care?
Your head might not be, but you might find yourself being unhappily cleaning up a mess for months
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was at a large company I made meetings with fellow EMs to prevent others from scheduling with us. It was the only way to get quality heads down time. All of them were titled something like “$X WG” where X was what we needed to work on and WG is an acronym for “Working Group”. We fooled our manager for a long time, though sometimes she would join the automatically-attached Zoom to find us.
I do this, except without the foolery. I schedule recurring blocks on my calendar like "Focus time" and "Personal time" so people know that scheduling meetings with me during those blocks may not result in my attendance.
I tried generic ones but they were schedule over :(
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's such a reductive statement. Yes there are always some unproductive meetings one has to attend. On the other hand, you'd be surprised how many leaders and middle-managers viscerally understand the cost of low-value meetings, and are doing everything they can to empower individuals to manage their own time. They might not call bullshit in a group setting (after all, as the slides call out: critical feedback shou…
> empower individuals Eye roll How to detect a "leader".
It’s corporate jargon, but it has a meaning - autonomy. If you’re in the “eye roll” camp you’re gonna max out on your potential pretty early.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#69I agree with each and every single slide in this presentation; I do. I also know that in each and every company I have ever worked for, none of this is going to fly. Especially, "Attending meetings is a choice." Just like paying taxes is a choice; got it. --- For decades, I have been asking for agendas; I have asked for clarification on what to do to prepare; I have even suggested that we have solid outcomes. None of…
> I also know that in each and every company I have ever worked for, none of this is going to fly. My favourite part of climbing the corporate ladder is finally having enough clout to just say "no". > I have been asking for agendas; I have asked for clarification on what to do to prepare; I have even suggested Try "I am unable to attend meeting without an agenda. Let me know when one has been posted." in your decline…
> Try "I am unable to attend meeting without an agenda. Let me know when one has been posted." in your decline message.
If you have a good manager you can often CC them or quote them in your response as well "Sorry, I'm busy with project work and Sarah wants me to stay focused to hit our deadlines. If we're going to need to budget time outside of it I'll need a clear agenda to offer as a rationale to my stakeholders."
I think it really helps to sell this if you've got casual impromptu voice calls as a norm in the company. If it was really just a quick thing then throw up a hangout for us to chat - if it's worth scheduling a meeting for it's certainly worth actually putting together an agenda.
As an aside - my company recentlyish switched from google to ms for calendar management and (among many things MS is terrible at) the fact that agendas aren't immediately visible in meetings on your calendar is the absolute worst UX decision.
Re: How to Attend Meetings
#70I agree with each and every single slide in this presentation; I do. I also know that in each and every company I have ever worked for, none of this is going to fly. Especially, "Attending meetings is a choice." Just like paying taxes is a choice; got it. --- For decades, I have been asking for agendas; I have asked for clarification on what to do to prepare; I have even suggested that we have solid outcomes. None of…
> I also know that in each and every company I have ever worked for, none of this is going to fly. My favourite part of climbing the corporate ladder is finally having enough clout to just say "no". > I have been asking for agendas; I have asked for clarification on what to do to prepare; I have even suggested Try "I am unable to attend meeting without an agenda. Let me know when one has been posted." in your decline…
I assume this works nice to get you out of any meeting they didn't want you to attend, but couldn't just remove you from.
If they plan to move resources out of your team but need highers approval, having a meeting that you refused to attend sounds like a good first step. You might be there on the next one, but the terrain is already prepared. And as it's a sensitive subject, a vague agenda would also be natural enough.