I’ve been on a jag lately about that plague upon productivity—the meeting. (This was inspired by Scott Snairs excellent blog posts which got me all revved up again on the topic.)
I’ve already shared my opinion that all meetings should be optional, and it should be up to the meeting leader to create a meeting that is useful enough to attract people. My other belief is that you should try to hold all your meetings without chairs.
Chairless meetings inspire brevity and focus. They say, “Let’s make this decision and move on.” They get rid of that “getting settled” phase of the meeting where people come into the room, size up who is where, and choose a seat. They also keep people from hanging on in the meeting until 30 minutes is up (or God forbid, an hour.)
I’m not saying remove the chairs from your conference rooms. I’m saying not to use the conference rooms. Hold your meetings around the coffee machine, in a common area, or in your office. Get them done quickly and move on to getting your work finished.
Of course, there may be occasions for longer meetings. For example, in step two of the Leading After a Layoff I suggest that you create a stakeholder analysis of your group. Presenting that information will probably require a sit down meeting.
In general, however, sit down meetings should be the exception, not the rule, in your group’s work flow.
