Stop scheduling meetings without the 3Hs and 5Ps

Poorly planned and facilitated meetings are one of the biggest annoyances I’ve had to deal with in my career (second only to indecisiveness). A lot has changed in terms of technology but the amount of “bad” meetings I’ve had to go through has stayed relatively the same. This frustrating fact has made me want to share what I’ve learnt leading engineering teams in the past four years in a simple blueprint we can all (strive to) use to plan better meetings. I’ll start by summarising the real cost of bad meetings, then share how to decrease the number of suboptimal meetings we attend, both as participants and coordinators. <h1>The cost of bad meetings</h1> Most of us can spot the telltale signs of a bad meeting from miles away. We’ve all sat in at least one “last-minute” meeting that clearly lacked purpose and preparation and was marred with confusion about participants’ roles, unclear next steps and a lack of decisive follow-through. The result: huge frustrations for everyone involved. Given that the amount of meetings has more than doubled in the last half a century (and it’s still increasing), this potentially wasted time leaves us no choice but to work past our end of the day or even during the weekends to catch up on “productive work”. The result is a snowball of issues including burnout, cynicism and disengagement, which translate into enormously expensive problems for employers. <a href="https://medium.com/jump-start/stop-scheduling-meetings-without-the-3hs-and-5ps-6ed48eabec0f">Read More</a>