If you are working on an international program, with colleagues and third party suppliers scattered around the globe, multiple projects in different countries (and continents!)… the level of complexity is very high and, as a logical consequence, you easily end up with a calendar flooded by invites at anytime of the day.
Death by meeting has many negative effects:
- it takes away precious time from the real work, and
- it frustrates your best employees, the high performers and most productive ones.
- often do not help in the decision process, but delays it furthermore.
So what can we do about it? Here are some suggestions:
- Review the current schedule and remove most of the meetings that involve a very large audience, such as 10+ attendees. Why do you need all these people on daily basis?
- Target your audience wisely, keep it small, and make clear what you want to achieve by inviting them.
- Delegate: do you really need the whole team – can’t you find a key person to interact with, report their updates and communicate the key issues and problems?
- Consider a pyramid structure such as the one proposed by the Table Group.
- Stick to one format: all your calls should be hosted on the same platform, same for your shared documents and deliverables.
Your feedback and contribution will be much appreciated.
Thank you!