Calendar overload

In G Suite, we are using a series of next-generation tools you can't appreciate before you are fully immersed. But they can make worrying trends in meeting culture worse.

Here is how tech can make office life better again.

Acceleration can wear you down

Today was grueling - back-to-back meetings are one thing, but half-hour meetings are especially tough.

I love our technology, but it really is to blame for this rhythm: I would venture such a schedule was not possible before the advent of Hangouts & Meet. Unless you're do everything from your chair (or standing in your home office), half-hour meetings in offices are usually not feasible. Waiting for elevators, finding a chair, getting a coffee takes significant percentages of those meetings.

So we abuse our powers: Nothing easier than to find a 30 minute gap and squeeze in an invitation. Thanks to Meet, you can jump straight to your next call. At the end of the working day, not only do I need to stay extra to even have a fighting chance against email, but I feel drained. Nobody can sprint all the time, or give their best if they're stumbling into meetings and need the first minutes to wrap their head around what it's actually about. Let alone wrap up the previous one with next actions.

We're doing it wrong.

The finest hour

What you can do: traditional remedies

When it comes to meetings, we don't have to reinvent the wheel: time-tested strategies still apply, such as:

Avoid meetings. In times of email overload we feel like a single meeting is better than an unending email chain, the math will only play out if you invite few people. Perhaps firing up a group chat could get you results easier?
Avoid participants. To avoid the stereotypical time-wasters in meetings, could you have two short meetings (with few, different people) instead of a big one to get buy-in?
Prepare and keep minutes. Calendar will let you attach a Docs. If you have repeating meetings, consider attaching a single "rolling" agenda where you add minutes on top, pushing old content down. One single document, easy looking up old minutes, no emailing minutes before/after - what could be better?
Keep people accountable. Close with clear todos. Since you keep minutes, people can be plussed in comments to create tasks. "Who does what?" - as easy as pressing CTRL+ALT+M #shortcutNerd

Have longer meetings

Meeting etiquette has us reducing meeting length to thirty minutes, and Calendar offers the tempting "speedy meetings" setting. I have yet to see a 25 minute meeting end before 30. And if you're in operations or have particularly anxious customers, chances are a 50 minute meeting may see a 10 minute one squeezed in just for good measure. That can't be productive and we can do better.

60 minutes, and please no more pseudo-speedy meetings.

I propose scheduling hour-long blocks again.

You have to be mindful of Parkinson's law, true: Work expands to fill time, and so can meetings. So set an example by "wrapping it up", or use the magnanimous "I'll give you 23 minutes back". People appreciate it (second only to canceled meetings). Chances are, this gives you a chance to do write that email in peace (instead of during the next meeting). It will even open the doors to parsimony, because only by wrapping up early you will be asked "can you stay on for 5 minutes" to discuss another pressing issue. Or just take the time to ask how somebody is doing. You can't sandwich that in 30 minutes and it sometimes makes all the difference.

It would be awesome if we could mold our culture a bit to more humane meeting times.

#calendar #meetPublished 2018-07-11 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2018-07-11 by Holger Matthies.

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