Doing sessions instead of meetings (#6)
Jul 31, 2022
Motivation
It’s quite likely that a meeting will end in frustration with no outcome, leading to another meeting being scheduled. Due to this and the fact that they are frequently poorly organized, they have a poor reputation in general. Thanks to new tools, remedial action can be taken.
Challenge
Being efficient and effective at the same time. A meeting seems to be efficient but often not very effective. An alternative to this would be a workshop but this is associated with a lot of effort and preparation. So the question is, what other alternatives are left to us?
Let’s take a step back and try to understand why we do meetings in the first place. So I googled it.
It’s apparently plain talk (Article). Which is quite a challenge, as a lot of information can be exchanged during a meeting.
Thus, you're faced with two options: attempting to remember everything, which likely won't be effective, or taking notes. While having notes is beneficial, the level of detail may vary among your colleagues, leading to inconsistent understanding. This disparity increases the likelihood of scheduling a follow-up meeting due to misunderstandings.
Solution
How can we ensure everyone departs with a unified understanding of the problem-solving approach? By visualizing it. It’s up to you how you will realize the visualization in the end. For instance, I no longer use the traditional analog whiteboard. Simply because:
It has limited space.
It doesn’t really scale with multiple participants.
You have to capture it again digitally since it’s analog.
It’s out of sync quite fast. For example, if you take a photo of a whiteboard, you can’t rearrange things if a better idea comes to you or things change during implementation.
I prefer to capture it digitally with my team right away. Some tools are already specialized in this field: Miro, Mural, FigJam
This brings further benefits:
You can prepare a board for the meeting.
Participants do not have to be physically present due to remote work.
Concepts can just be duplicated and changed easily.
You can use methods like: work together alone.
It can be changed and modified afterwards easily.
It’s therefore in sync and serves as a single source of truth.
You can quickly onboard new peers.
What types of visualization can be done together or alone? To name a few: Affinity mapping, Card sorting, User story mapping, etc.
But first, people need to discard their old viewpoints. The belief that meetings are quick when they actually slow things down. And the misconception of being slow when you first visualize your thoughts and ideas when it’s not. Because in the long run, it’s an investment for you and your team to always visualize the problem you’re trying to solve and to avoid the chance of misunderstandings. It really helps to reduce the chance of follow-up appointments and if they do occur, it shortens them due to a common understanding from seeing the same picture.
*Note: This way of visualizing either works if everyone is working from home or within the office or both. When everyone is in the office, it is beneficial to have laptops to meet in one room.
Articles
Video
Doing sessions instead of meetings (#6)
Jul 31, 2022
Motivation
It’s quite likely that a meeting will end in frustration with no outcome, leading to another meeting being scheduled. Due to this and the fact that they are frequently poorly organized, they have a poor reputation in general. Thanks to new tools, remedial action can be taken.
Challenge
Being efficient and effective at the same time. A meeting seems to be efficient but often not very effective. An alternative to this would be a workshop but this is associated with a lot of effort and preparation. So the question is, what other alternatives are left to us?
Let’s take a step back and try to understand why we do meetings in the first place. So I googled it.
It’s apparently plain talk (Article). Which is quite a challenge, as a lot of information can be exchanged during a meeting.
Thus, you're faced with two options: attempting to remember everything, which likely won't be effective, or taking notes. While having notes is beneficial, the level of detail may vary among your colleagues, leading to inconsistent understanding. This disparity increases the likelihood of scheduling a follow-up meeting due to misunderstandings.
Solution
How can we ensure everyone departs with a unified understanding of the problem-solving approach? By visualizing it. It’s up to you how you will realize the visualization in the end. For instance, I no longer use the traditional analog whiteboard. Simply because:
It has limited space.
It doesn’t really scale with multiple participants.
You have to capture it again digitally since it’s analog.
It’s out of sync quite fast. For example, if you take a photo of a whiteboard, you can’t rearrange things if a better idea comes to you or things change during implementation.
I prefer to capture it digitally with my team right away. Some tools are already specialized in this field: Miro, Mural, FigJam
This brings further benefits:
You can prepare a board for the meeting.
Participants do not have to be physically present due to remote work.
Concepts can just be duplicated and changed easily.
You can use methods like: work together alone.
It can be changed and modified afterwards easily.
It’s therefore in sync and serves as a single source of truth.
You can quickly onboard new peers.
What types of visualization can be done together or alone? To name a few: Affinity mapping, Card sorting, User story mapping, etc.
But first, people need to discard their old viewpoints. The belief that meetings are quick when they actually slow things down. And the misconception of being slow when you first visualize your thoughts and ideas when it’s not. Because in the long run, it’s an investment for you and your team to always visualize the problem you’re trying to solve and to avoid the chance of misunderstandings. It really helps to reduce the chance of follow-up appointments and if they do occur, it shortens them due to a common understanding from seeing the same picture.
*Note: This way of visualizing either works if everyone is working from home or within the office or both. When everyone is in the office, it is beneficial to have laptops to meet in one room.
Articles
Video
Doing sessions instead of meetings (#6)
Jul 31, 2022
Motivation
It’s quite likely that a meeting will end in frustration with no outcome, leading to another meeting being scheduled. Due to this and the fact that they are frequently poorly organized, they have a poor reputation in general. Thanks to new tools, remedial action can be taken.
Challenge
Being efficient and effective at the same time. A meeting seems to be efficient but often not very effective. An alternative to this would be a workshop but this is associated with a lot of effort and preparation. So the question is, what other alternatives are left to us?
Let’s take a step back and try to understand why we do meetings in the first place. So I googled it.
It’s apparently plain talk (Article). Which is quite a challenge, as a lot of information can be exchanged during a meeting.
Thus, you're faced with two options: attempting to remember everything, which likely won't be effective, or taking notes. While having notes is beneficial, the level of detail may vary among your colleagues, leading to inconsistent understanding. This disparity increases the likelihood of scheduling a follow-up meeting due to misunderstandings.
Solution
How can we ensure everyone departs with a unified understanding of the problem-solving approach? By visualizing it. It’s up to you how you will realize the visualization in the end. For instance, I no longer use the traditional analog whiteboard. Simply because:
It has limited space.
It doesn’t really scale with multiple participants.
You have to capture it again digitally since it’s analog.
It’s out of sync quite fast. For example, if you take a photo of a whiteboard, you can’t rearrange things if a better idea comes to you or things change during implementation.
I prefer to capture it digitally with my team right away. Some tools are already specialized in this field: Miro, Mural, FigJam
This brings further benefits:
You can prepare a board for the meeting.
Participants do not have to be physically present due to remote work.
Concepts can just be duplicated and changed easily.
You can use methods like: work together alone.
It can be changed and modified afterwards easily.
It’s therefore in sync and serves as a single source of truth.
You can quickly onboard new peers.
What types of visualization can be done together or alone? To name a few: Affinity mapping, Card sorting, User story mapping, etc.
But first, people need to discard their old viewpoints. The belief that meetings are quick when they actually slow things down. And the misconception of being slow when you first visualize your thoughts and ideas when it’s not. Because in the long run, it’s an investment for you and your team to always visualize the problem you’re trying to solve and to avoid the chance of misunderstandings. It really helps to reduce the chance of follow-up appointments and if they do occur, it shortens them due to a common understanding from seeing the same picture.
*Note: This way of visualizing either works if everyone is working from home or within the office or both. When everyone is in the office, it is beneficial to have laptops to meet in one room.