Meetings For Good

I’ve found myself enjoying meetings recently…

Yes, you did read that correctly.

I’ll rewind a little…

6 months ago, whilst running PANDR, i was up to my neck in more client work than any sane person should be doing, at any one time. I was finishing off front-end builds, browser testing, test driving development on the start of another big, multi-language web app and overseeing quality of another year long project - amongst a host of other small and medium sized projects too. If anyone had hinted at the idea of a meeting i would have bitten their heads off. Time was extremely precious and a meeting to discuss anything was simply out of the question. I’d have done anything to avoid having to be away from my desk.

Fast-forward to present day and the idea of stepping away from my computer for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or even an hour is proving to be both rewarding and productive.

Since starting Beta Hive 3 months ago, formal/structured meetings between my co-founder and I, and often our interns too, have progressed from being bi-weekly events to weekly and now occur almost every-other day.

Today, having a sensible grasp of my own time as well as complete control of the direction of my product, means i’m regularly planning and discussing progress with my colleagues. Time is also being used to sew and mull over creative ideas; anything from coding solutions and growth hacking techniques to brand development and product design.

As a result i’m now finding meetings to be a very necessary but satisfactory part of my job. Stepping away from my computer alone helps endlessly when it comes to gathering my thoughts. I also make a point of not taking my laptop (when possible) to meetings. Paper and pen or in a worst case scenario, my phone, is perfect for note taking.

A few points about our meetings which help to keep them productive:

1. Leave the computer. They’re a distraction when you’re trying to have a conversation with someone. Obviously this is difficult if the meeting is based around some data or protoype work.

2. Take a walk. I spend too much of my life sat down in an office. If you’ve got the opportunity to go for a five minute walk whilst having your meeting - what harm can it do?!

3. Location, location, location. Leave the office, even if you’re not going for a walk, go and grab a coffee or even a beer, or lunch maybe. Get out of the office, put yourself in a different environment, you’ll never know what will inspire you next.

4. Be proactive. Don’t wait for someone to ask you if you need to chat; take the initiative, ask someone in your team if they can spare 10 minutes so you can bend their ear about whatever it is you’re working on.

5. Pick your moments. It’s not practical to disturb someone at the drop of a hat. Colleagues are often deep in concentration so interrupting them can be really annoying. Get an internal chat app - they’re perfect for asking questions passively without disturbing people.

6. Stick to the point. Talk about what you need to talk about, set some goals and get out of there. Everyone’s busy, don’t waste each others time eeking out a meeting that only needs to be 10 minutes. Draw a conclusion and get back on it!