Free from the tyranny of meeting rooms.

For most of us, and most likely, of you, meetings are the least productive part of the day. And still, too many smart people linger on them. Meetings spawn more meetings, and the vicious circle continues, reducing productivity and acting on nerves.

As a former Google Calendar product manager, I have seen a lot of human reactions to meetings. As a partner in Google Ventures, I directly worked with more than a hundred startups. I even did courses on how to break free from the tyranny of negotiations. And this is what I recommend:

Remove status meetings

The most harmful for work are weekly status meetings, or meetings to track progress. Type "let everyone tell what he has achieved." It is a waste of time, stretching from the days when the managers thus verified that people were doing their job.
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Most of the updates apply to 1-2 people in the room, and all others are stupidly waiting for their turn. Replace them with messaging systems, meetings with fewer participants, or mailing lists.

Be respectful of one-on-one meetings.

It is interesting how managers spend time on general meetings, and all the time they cancel personal meetings with their immediate subordinates. And these are the most important meetings in your schedule - only they are not needed for you, they are for employees.

The manager must make decisions, remove obstacles and help employees feel good and feel appreciated. If you do not break the schedule and meet people, it shows them that they are important and respected.

Each meeting should have a main

He is responsible for the announcement of the purpose and plan of the meeting, determines who makes the decisions, organizes the distribution based on. No one should ask: "Whose meeting is this?" Do not schedule a meeting if it does not have a meeting, or if you do not want to be one.

If you borrow time for someone else’s time, treat it as if you are borrowing a staircase from a neighbor. Ask politely, do not tighten, return quickly and say "thank you".

Notify in advance about the purpose and schedule of the meeting. What questions need to decide who should attend. No one should enter the negotiation room without having a clue why they are there and what needs to be achieved. Let the workers vote with their feet - give them permission not to go to a meeting that has no meaning, owner and schedule.

Your calendar does not make you an important person.

Too many directors believe that once they have a loaded calendar, they become very important people - and making several meetings at the same time is equivalent to a prize award.

You are a manager, not a meeting attendant. They just take you away from your team. If you are not needed - reject the meeting offer, or leave it. Do not be offended if you are not invited - often it is the praise of the team you have built. If you have something to say, tell the meeting organizer in advance.

Calendar does not allow to postpone decisions.

If the decision needs to be made quickly, immediately collect those who accept it. Create a culture of urgency when decisions are made quickly and not delayed. Another advantage of a non-clogged calendar is that you will have more time to help others with instant decisions.

Do not invite a lot of people to meetings.

Ideally - less than five people. Studies show that more than seven people in one room worsen the effectiveness of meetings. Groups should send a representative, and not come entirely. If you do not know how to reduce the number of participants in the meeting - review the tasks, or divide and dominate.

Of course, I do not mean meeting the whole team or weekly holidays. Warn everyone in advance about them, and make sure you have time for questions and answers.

Rate each meeting

How much will your company cost this meeting? For example, a two-hour meeting with 16 participants - 32 man-hours. This is almost the whole week of work of one person. This meeting is more important than what your employee can achieve in a week? Try to remind everyone about the cost of meetings with a timer.

Treat the calendar of others as a rare resource.

Do not make appointments longer than an hour, and strive for half an hour. You will be surprised what can be achieved. Finish on time, leave quickly, so that others do not have to wait until the room is free. Respect for someone else's time works in the other direction - being present at a meeting, tear yourself away from a laptop or smartphone.

Go up the hierarchy, but do not undermine authority

In many companies this is not accepted. But why? Managers must resolve inconsistencies. Contradictions lead to downtime. If people cannot reach agreement, they need to quickly and culturally contact a higher level employee who can make a decision. In the right teams, you can disagree, but make a decision made.

If the meeting is over, finish it.

At how many meetings someone said, “We have another 20 minutes, what else can we discuss?”. This is absurd. If you get to the house 15 minutes faster, you will not sit in the car for the rest of the time? If you finished the meeting earlier - great. Finish it and give people back their time.

Declare calendar bankruptcy

Sometimes you can break out of debts in meetings by resetting the calendar and starting anew. I worked somehow with a startup who decided to do just that. January 1, they deleted all appointments. Meetings were added only if they were necessary and had leading and properly selected participants.

Everyone was surprised at the achieved result. The weekly “status meetings,” which took 3 hours each, disappeared altogether. Some have returned, but with fewer participants and at smaller intervals. The company received thousands of man-hours. And this time it became possible to use for work.