Thursday, March 10, 2016

The Power of 30 Minute Meetings and Videos

A while ago, Forbes printed an article on the power of 30 minute meetings.  Of course it interested me.  I generally dislike meetings and the dislike is proportional to the length of the meeting.

My simple addition to what is said in the article is "be on time".  And in the age of devices, it is simple to start on time.  First thing each day, I set alarms on my device for 2-3 minutes before each meeting.  This is a very simple practise that I practically insist people do.  The wasted stress of watching a clock and the time wasted by others of being late is easily avoided.

To be crude, I recently listened to some of Robert Sutton's work.  He is author of "The No Asshole Rule".  One of his definitions is people who make others wait for them and who make meetings start late.

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I am not a big advocate of video personally although I know many others like it.  I just think it takes too long.

Danby has a few videos.   A brand video.  And a fairly good one on design.

The exception to "videos that take too long" are ones that provide humour or excitement or some other characteristic that might even help them go viral.  Danby has yet to do a viral video but we have a few ideas.

Beer companies tend to have some of the most creative and funny ones.

And a grandchild video.

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Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

1 Comments:

At 7:13 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Jim:

I couldn't agree more about keeping meetings short, sweet, and simple. If you do not need the meeting, do not have the meeting,

That said, I am not sure I agree with the "be on time," comment. Let's use Danby as your example, since that is where you currently are; if an employee that is involved in the meeting is not on-time, is that not THEIR problem? Shouldn't they be running around after just to call other folks asking "what did Jim say for the first five minutes?" I have run plenty of meeting in my lifetime and if the clock says 10 AM and the meeting is for 10 AM, we start at 10 AM. TFB if you're late; it gives me a glimpse into the employee's time management skills and if it a consistent problem, you deal with the employee, right?

*In fairness, there are appropriate times to be late. If a meeting is scheduled by someone in an office and a key customer gives you an appointment time that coincides, then surely you would want the meeting with the customer to run smoothly and the employee to catch-up.

There is always an exception to the rule.

That said, 30 minutes is enough time to cook dinner, review your email in-box, drive to Starbucks (or Tim Horton's for my Canadian friend), etc. If you can do those things in 30 minutes, a meeting should last no longer.

Same page, different theory. Thanks for the post and the video.

Jason E

 

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