Programmers, how to avoid invalid meetings?

Why have to have a meeting

A year or two ago , I hate meetings very much . I don't think the time spent in the meeting can be proportional to the results obtained . But as working hours grow , I came to understand the necessity of the meeting （ Although the necessity of many meetings remains to be discussed ）. Here are a few examples ：

1. Unified treatment of problems ： Because meetings are usually attended by a plurality of people , Therefore, problems involving a plurality of people can usually be handled at the same time , So as to improve the processing efficiency .

2. The problem escalates to arbitration ： When you find that the level of problems you encounter is beyond your current decision-making scope , You need to escalate the problem . After the problem is upgraded, the higher level committee will make decisions in the meeting .

3. Communicate effectively ： Because the communication tool itself has problems such as receiving uncertainty and response time , Therefore, when high-speed communication within the team is required in a low latency way, it can be carried out through meetings , This can effectively avoid the interruption of other things .

Of course, there are thousands of reasons for the meeting , But relatively speaking , I will abstract the reasons for the meeting as follows ：

We need a group , Conduct a continuous broadcast exchange of views , The agreement of some views has been confirmed .

therefore , When we need to confirm certain points , It needs to be held in the form of a meeting . Of course , This meeting is actually Abstract , For example ： When we vote in the chat group to confirm what to eat for dinner , Itself is also a “ Online meeting ”, Because you need to keep paying attention . But we often measure the form of the meeting , Then tend to meet the needs and consume less energy .

What would be meaningful

The purpose of the meeting is to Confirm the subject . Whether to confirm the opinion 、 Confirm the work content or to confirm the problem , Generally speaking, it is to confirm something . In addition to confirming this essence , Others are the process or means of meeting , for example ： Brainstorming 、 Take turns to speak 、 vote by ballot 、 Online remote . In my submission ：

Meetings that effectively identify topics are meaningful .

It's easy for us to , Follow the discussion at that time , This situation may be due to sudden inspiration 、 Involving team interests or high thirst for knowledge . But once the discussion begins to diverge “ Confirm the goal ” The scope of the , Then it's hard to “ Confirm the goal ” Contribute to the , Naturally, it will also reduce the efficiency of the meeting , Then this process becomes an invalid process .

So in order to improve the final quality of the meeting 、 Efficiency of the overall meeting , Make the meeting more meaningful , We should pay attention to the final goal during the meeting , Avoid falling into the trap of invalid processes .

How to hold a good meeting

Our goal is to achieve the objectives of the meeting in the most efficient way , That is, the confirmation of the expected conclusion . So a good meeting should be promoted around this theme .

Now let's divide by time , Sort out the common precautions , And explain the reasons based on my own experience .

Prepare for the meeting

Before the meeting, it is mainly to confirm the three dimensions of the meeting ： when 、 And where 、 what . The meeting sponsor should be responsible for these three main contents .

therefore , Preparation before the meeting is to occupy everyone's time , Convert to occupy the personal time of the person in charge of the meeting , But at the same time, the quality of the person in charge of the meeting will directly affect the quality of the meeting .

when

The meeting needs to confirm the time of the meeting , There is no doubt that . However, there are mainly several problems arising from this point .

1. If there are people who usually occupy more time in the meeting （ The main interviewer of the leader or team ） Ensure that the person's time is limited .

2. If there are many people in the meeting , We need to evaluate the nature of the meeting , Is it really necessary for all personnel to participate .

3. If it is in the form of regular meetings, it can be constrained by the default scheduled time .

Confirm the time of the meeting mainly to avoid the occurrence of adjacent meetings, and the personnel find that the conditions for holding the meeting are not met .

And where

For some companies, meeting rooms need to be reserved . At the same time, with the epidemic and 、 The popularity of online office , Online office and online audit by some personnel can be adopted as needed . The main purpose is to promote a wave of online meetings , Now in the company, even if everyone is in the company sometimes, it will take the form of online meetings . The reason is to reduce the time for personnel gathering and dissolution .

what

The meeting sponsor is required to confirm the theme of the meeting 、 Overall meeting agenda 、 Conference reference materials . And distribute it to everyone before the meeting .

among , The theme of the meeting will restrict the discussion scope of subsequent meetings ; The agenda of the meeting will determine the format of the meeting ; The purpose of the meeting is to make everyone familiar with the contents discussed in the meeting in advance , In order to improve the efficiency and quality of the meeting .

Will push forward again

In meeting promotion refers to the actual stage of the meeting . The most difficult part in this part is to control the meeting process , Because in order to get full discussion of the contents of the meeting , Therefore, it is necessary to expand the content around the theme , But when the problem discussion continues in depth, it is easy to get away from the subject . Therefore, excellent meeting leaders need to have reasonable control over the progress of the meeting , Although not necessarily so comprehensive , But you can refer to the content .

The recording of the meeting is complete

Unless there is some sensitive content in the meeting , Otherwise, it is highly recommended to record the whole meeting . If you use flying book 、 Nail nail this office software , You can use it directly to open an online meeting , Then end the recording after the meeting .

The benefits of meeting recording are , Repeat the meeting contents 、 When reconfirming , You can confirm with the existing content , Without having to confirm again . So that The same question is not discussed twice . And conference recording is particularly important for review meetings .

Determine who will take the minutes

Unlike meeting recording, it is a comprehensive record of the meeting process , The meeting recorder will track the discussion of the meeting , determine ：

• Focus on

• Agenda conclusion

• End time of the person responsible for the to-do

The role of the meeting recorder is to discuss the meeting without interruption , Output the meeting content directly after the meeting , Subsequent implementation contents , It is convenient for the rapid deployment of the implementation content and the follow-up of the implementation content .

Subject control

If the content of the speech is directly around the agenda and theme of the meeting , Is a necessary discussion , But if it is already too divergent , It should be stopped immediately , However, it can be confirmed according to the importance of the problem whether it needs to be a follow-up confirmation item .

Judge whether the problem is divergent , It can be judged from two aspects ：

• Divergence level

• Single topic discussion time

If the divergent discussion of divergent content , exceed 2 layer , Generally, it has little relevance . And if a problem has been discussed 5 Minutes. , Then we need to judge whether we can draw a conclusion in this meeting , If not, it is also suggested to stop the discussion .

Duration control

The discussion of the meeting requires high-intensity mental activities , Therefore, if the meeting is held for a long time, it is not conducive to improving the effect of the meeting . A meeting time proposal 45-1h, If the judgment can be divided into two games , You can 5-10 Take a rest in the meeting of minutes , For the attention of the meeting .

Sum up after the meeting

The summary after the meeting is often the key to judge the effectiveness of the meeting . If it is a meeting of the type of scheme establishment , No implementation after discussion , Then the whole meeting is meaningless . For the content after the meeting, you can pay attention to the following points ：

Send meeting minutes for confirmation

After the meeting, distribute the main minutes of the meeting to the Group , Or distribute it to the participants , As the support of follow-up actions .

To do tracking

For the concluding content in the meeting, you need , If there is subsequent confirmation 、 perform 、 The output content should have a corresponding deadline . And make sure to finish within the deadline . For example , Generally, the conclusion of the pre review meeting is to support the external review meeting , The conclusion of the external review meeting is to support the actual function development . If the to-do in the conclusion is not effectively implemented , Then the meeting will become meaningless , Because it is unable to effectively support the subsequent process that depends on the conclusion of the meeting .

Keep the content on file

For the contents and conclusions of the meeting , Content retention is required . If necessary, you can build a case base . Avoid the same problem being discussed repeatedly in different environments , For the same condition, please refer to the previous discussion . But notice that , It's best to keep the content on file with the recording of the meeting . The reason is that people's memory is limited , If only based on the agenda and conclusions of the meeting , It is likely to produce ambiguity after a period of time , At this time, you can go back to the original content of the meeting .

Last , Here's your memo

In the above, we discussed the precautions in the environment of the meeting , This section will list a TODO List, You can directly use it for process confirmation in daily meetings , Or according to your own understanding, make improvements that are suitable for you .

TODO List

Before the meeting ：

• Determine the meeting personnel

• Fix the meeting time

• Determine the meeting format （ Will stand 、 Conference Room 、 on-line ）

• confirm 、 Make an appointment for the meeting place

• Organize meeting materials 、 agenda

• Confirm the distribution of meeting materials and agenda

Meeting ：

• Confirm meeting recording

• Confirm the meeting minutes by

• Regular reminder of the meeting

• Control the content of the speech

After the meeting ：

• The minutes are well known

• The contents of the meeting shall be kept on file

• To do tracking （ According to each ddl Set regular reminders ）

Last , I hope you can escape the invalid meeting .