Come on, give me the chills

making the most out of meetings

  1. Don’t do meetings.
  2. If meetings are required ask yourself “Can I contribute to it?” If not, get out of the meeting.
  3. Keep meetings short.
  4. If meetings can’t be short split the topics. Unless you’re creating the next Coca Cola you won’t need a long meeting.
  5. Arrive prepared. Do your homework, read mails, papers, etc. 
  6. Don’t ask for a recap at the beginning of the meeting of what you should know. Arrive prepared or else you’re useless.
  7. Don’t ask for a recap at the end of the meeting.
  8. No smartphone.
  9. At least one person should do the meeting recap via mail, listing all that’s been decided. (If no action will followup the meeting, then the meeting is useless and could’ve been discarded).
  10. If no person is defined, be the one. Take responsability and ownership.
  11. Let people talk.
  12. Respect the time. If a meeting last 30 minutes, 10 minutes before the end a timer should ring and the recapper should both replay for the presents what’s been decided and prepare the email. If the meeting last 1hr do it 15 min before the end. If the meeting last more than 1hr refer to rule number 4.
  13. No small talk at the beginning of the meeting. Take coffe together before if you really need it.
  14. Arrive prepared (yes, it’s written twice because it’s _that_ important).
  15. If you can’t arrive prepared skip the meeting.
  16. Be on time or everyone will lose time. Your time is not more important than others, whatever your position.
  17. Ask people _beforehand_ if the meeting time is ok. A meeting on a calendar is not a way to block people time.
  18. Arrive prepared.
  19. Arrive on time.
  20. Don’t be a jerk.

Andrea Grassi

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