How to Make Your Meetings 10x More Efficient
How to Make Your Meetings 10x More Efficient
Our company, Reflect7, used to meet twice a week. During these meetings, we would go over necessary action items and end up bullshitting for an hour or two in the process. It was great, except that productivity was taking a backseat to our ADD. We were losing momentum and each meeting felt like a hassle. Little was getting accomplished for the amount of time we spent together. By limiting our communication, we were able to turn it all around.
Instead of meeting in person, we met on Tinychat.com. Tinychat is a web app that lets you instantly create a video chat room. Because Corey and I share the same residence, tinychat is exceptionally slow with a lot of lag and echo. This makes us not want to talk. Since we have action items that are due, we still have to communicate our progress, but we no longer banter the night away. I find myself using a lot of head nods and thumbs up instead of speaking. It’s a hassle to speak, which limits what we want to talk about. No longer are we shooting the shit about relationships or new ideas. When we do speak, it is concise and to the point.
Since we’ve incorporated this method, there has been a change in momentum. When meetings are sluggish and slow, we felt it. But now they are fast and efficient, and we feel it too. It rubs off on us. Let’s face it, with multiple people, are multiple distractions. Our goal is to eliminate these distractions.
We still meet in person when it’s necessary. The bond that creates a partnership can never be trumped by the internet. However, we also meet outside of our business setting. We’ll roll out together to South Lincoln for a night of fun or get together on the weekends. This is when we pitch our crazy ideas and talk about our relationships, experiences, and enlightenments.
Bottom Line
If your meetings are slowing you down, restrict communication. Doing so will limit the amount of fluff that each member contributes. Tangents will decrease as people are no longer able to share elongated stories or anecdotes. When you do this, make sure to set aside time for socialization where everyone can still connect on a personal level. The glue will still be there, it just doesn’t need to be applied every meeting.
-Brian Lambelet
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-JP