A VC - Latest Comments in Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

mattjazz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:30:58 -0000

Most of my meetings have been operational ones, with multiple participants. I've made the experience that multitasking as described under 5) is one of the biggest meeting productivity killers.

I prefer to structure the agenda in a way that not everyone needs to be present all of the time. So meeting participants generally pop in and out of the meeting in 15-30 min intervals. They should go back to their work and do it in a focused manner.

Surprisingly enough, in spite of the fact that many people complain about lot of unproductive time spent in the meetings, it took quite some tome before this practice has been accepted by the invitees and they left automatically after agenda topics of concern to them.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

David Gillespie — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:52:01 -0000

I love this bike rack idea! I am going to start using this today.

And great post Fred.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

wjcohen — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:47:45 -0000

My wife taught me about a whiteboard/piece of paper her organization puts up at every meeting called a bike rack (or "parking lot," for the nono-ecofriendly.) Anytime an issue comes up that threatens the main focus of the conversation, anyone at the meeting can yell "bike rack" and they put it on the sheet and get back to business. Then they come back to the bike rack issues at the end or at another more appropriate meeting.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Antman — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:08:13 -0000

Making yourself available, right on!!!!!! More people need to do this. Nobody, I mean NOBODY who has made it, did it on their own. Everyone has had help. It amazes me how people seem to forget this!

Good work Fred, for remembering this and makin' ya self available. How you do it; that's about you. Doin' it; that is about others. That's truly giving!

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

andy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:02:15 -0000

this is my favorite:

5) Try to do it right in the meeting if you can. A quick email or phone call right during the meeting can be a great way to get the thing done you agreed to do. Jimmy told me he does this a lot and I agree that it's a great trick if you can pull it off.

I have personally found that doing this is by far the most effective, time saving way to do two things:
a) get something off your plate immediately
b) potentially end the meeting on "delivered goods"

For me, getting one major thing accomplisged in a meeting, or one deliverable is HUGE.

Andy

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

fredwilson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:03:05 -0000

I know that a bunch of our companies do these and like them

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

MikePLewis — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:30:41 -0000

in a company when meeting internally, i find it's good to have "standup meetings" where it's not in a conference room but rather around somebody's desk/computer. This limits the wasteful chitchat, limits the size to only the people who need to be involved and people seem to focus better.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

cpa2be — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:25:04 -0000

I agree with never turning down an interview opportunity. You never know what you're going to learn or if you'll end up liking the position. It helps overcome fears that many people have about interviewing.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

cpa2be — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:18:16 -0000

I appreciate your thoughts on this topic. More often than not, I think unproductive meetings have the ability to turn around and become productive. If nothing else, you can often walk away with a great "gem" or two.

Being younger than most people I meet with has generated some "no I can't meet with you" responses, but once people take the time to meet up both parties often have a great experience. I am able to learn so much from other generations and feel than I can return the favor about gen y.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Venkat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:48:16 -0000

Wow, that's a bit of an echo chamber you guys have going there. My entire comment below can be classified as a riff on 'a cat may look at a king.'

I can cheerfully say that I have (out of choice) been in very few meetings that could be classified as "audience being granted with indulgent and gracious benefactor" from the seeker side, and none at all from the other other end, having no grace or benefaction to bestow :-). If I did, I predict I would hate being oversubscribed in terms of in-bound seeker attention of this 1:1 sort. In fact my discomfort with such formally-asymmetric meeting situations ("this is for you, I am just being nice") is probably a top reason why I never returned to the startup world after a brief foray, and why I am not in sales, and why I avoid mentorship relationships from both ends. I can tolerate enterprise research biz dev, which I do a little bit of, mainly because it is a more P2P situation that allows me to be more myself, less 'on show.' Even within the enterprise, while I do talk to senior management people a fair amount, I avoid 'stand on ceremony' situations where I am pure seeker, and largely limit myself to interactions where the senior manager in question also needs something from me. The enterprise is in this respect a healthier place than the VC world, because even a CEO-janitor interaction can, with creativity, be framed as "this is for the good of the corporation, and we are both on the same team" thereby mitigating the me-asking-powerful-you aspect. Basically, I avoid situations where I am pure seeker, with nothing to offer in return, like the plague. I eventually stop cultivating a relationship if the other person acts like they are getting no value out of me (whether their perception is true or false, I need to get out, since I don't like being given handouts OR being under appreciated).

In other words, there are reasons to dislike what you call 'unproductive meetings' even from the side from which you might think it is 1-way productive :) An asymmetric meeting situation is stacked against authentic dialogue. Sure, in the real world, you gotta be able to navigate all sorts of situations with all sorts of people in both symmetric and asymmetric conditions, but so far I've survived in my little anti-hierarchical, non-seeker, win-win-only neck of the woods.

Anyhoo, you guys might enjoy my somewhat tongue-in-cheek misanthropic piece The 15 laws of meeting power which is really more relevant to longer group meetings, but some of it applies mutatis mutandis, to 1:1 meetings.

Venkat

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Dan Weinreb — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:05:13 -0000

I think 30 minutes as a limit is not a universal rule. It depends a lot on what the meeting is for. At Common Angels, we always allow a company more time than that to explain what they're doing, even at our first meeting with them. It takes a while for the salient points to come out, and you want to get a feel for the people. Also, the executive director of Common Angels and I recently met a partner from a local VC firm, and we spent two hour in a fascinating discussion comparing how we do business and getting to know each other. In my day job at ITA Software, meetings that I go to are usually to have detailed discussion of a technical area, or go over schedules for our project, and those meetings are usually one hour. I agree that there should be a hard time limit. (Many of us have such limits because we have other schedule activites, anyway.) So 30 minutes is appropriate for some kinds of meetings but not necessarily for others. I agree with the rest of your points.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

mikenolan99 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:52:09 -0000

I love the "what goes around..." concept. I helped out a startup with some early capital placement, and nothing ever came of it. Just today, he ended ended up helping me on a charity project.

My favorite team meeting concept is to never have an agenda. Have a goal. Let the team decide the way to get there... starting a meeting with a blank sheet of paper is a powerful thing...

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Anton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:29:08 -0000

Limit the number of participaints. Productivity is inversely related to participiant number.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Poppe — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:55:14 -0000

Fred, I think it's great to expose one self to serendipity. The Basecamp guys (37signals in 'Getting Real') also set a 30 min limit to all meetings. I'm seriously considering buying a 30 min hour glass and put it on the table every time I go into a meeting. That will send the right message. As for limiting time spent on career advice I just send people a copy of "Johnny Bunko - The last career guide you'll ever need".

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

Steve Kane — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:17:43 -0000

another good technique for keeping meetings decently brief: add large quantities of laxatives to the coffee and soft drinks served to your guests.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

leigh — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:29:53 -0000

Agencies are notorious for meetings. Meetings to set up meetings. Meetings to talk about the meeting you just had. Meetings to talk about the meeting you are going to have. Monthly meetings. Weekly meetings. Department meetings. Management meetings. Sr. Executive meetings. Even more Sr. Executive meetings.

I'm sure you've seen this link from 37signals - an oldie but a goodie. http://gettingreal.37signal...

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

fredwilson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:01:07 -0000

I try to respond to most emails

The shorter the email and the easier the reponse, the more likely I will respond

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

mrclark411 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:55:13 -0000

Good point.

But would you respond to me had I emailed you? (probably apples/oranges, since in a way you wrote me first)

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

fredwilson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:42:05 -0000

When you comment on my blog, you are writing me an email

That's the power of disqus

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

mrclark411 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:37:58 -0000

This is kinda funny. I post a comment to your blog. You often respond personally (and quickly) and yet I don't know that I would feel comfortable writing you an email.

Strange world this internet.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

fredwilson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:35:05 -0000

I can't think of any good examples. If it was regret, it wasn't deep regret

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

mrclark411 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:26:38 -0000

Fred,
"Try to do it right in the meeting if you can." Have you ever made a phone call or sent an email in one of those meetings that you regretted later? In the moment you thought that this kid has a great idea, but perhaps you shouldn't have forwarded it to X?

Just curious.

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

howardlindzon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:07:34 -0000

in the spirit of my last comment if you want to meet with me in toronto and see the sweat on demand in person...email me to set up a meeting

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

howardlindzon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:06:34 -0000

i can sweat profusely on demand and that freaks people out. built in meeting ender. oh and screw you andy :)

Re: Managing "Unproductive" Meetings

John — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:45:01 -0000

Regarding #3, for any meeting, I recommend distributing the agenda, meeting goals and any participant responsibilities (e.g., what materials to review, etc.) prior to the meeting so participants come to the meeting prepared to discuss and, if required, make decisions.
Also, particularly for meetings that will be repeat, ask participants to rate the meeting (communications, agenda, goals achieved, etc.) and solicit suggestions on how to improve.