Meeting Hell

Meeting Hell Part 4

Edgardo Vega — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:37:00 GMT

This was left in my comments here and written by Chris Williams

I've found that if you disagree with every single point made by anyone in the meeting, they tend to not invite you back. Of course, credibility suffers some... but you're left alone to do your work.

The danger of this... is if you work somewhere that everyone thinks you are the smartest one on the team, they assume you're right and invite you to even MORE meetings.

Then they "promote you" to system designer or architect... and you find that coding is no longer one of your responsibilities. Then you're stuck in meetings all day, every day until review time, when they realize you have accomplished nothing and they fire you.

or maybe not... :)

I find this extremely funny and true (most of it). I am sure many of you have either gone through this or seen it happen.

Meeting Hell Part 3

Edgardo Vega — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:02:00 GMT

I have found the solution to Meeting Hell, more holidays. Yesterday (Labor Day) was great because there were no meetings. It was also excellent, because meetings were already being cancelled, due to the long weekend.

This event got me thinking. Why should a meeting be cancelled, due to the long weekend? The difference is only one work day. If the work week was cut down to 4 days, would we have the same amount of meetings or would that number go down?

I have had people ask me to post more often on this topic. So my goal is to post one of these every work day.

There are some good stories in my comments that I plan to elevate into full posts. So please keep the comments coming or email me. Also let me know what you like or don't like.

Meeting Hell Part 2

Edgardo Vega — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:24:00 GMT

From my experience, most projects are already in Meeting Hell. So the next few posts will be focused on stopping meeting hell. These experience will hopefully not only come from me, but from the rest of the blogosphere. Remember to leave a comment or contact me, in order to share your stories.

I have gone into several meetings and have had Person A giving their status report and then Person B raises an objection to the way Person A is implementing a feature. Soon it evolves (or devolves in my opinion), to a large discussion of what exactly is being done and why. Then Person C (who really just wants to leave the meeting and get some work done) says hey why don't we have meeting on this (knowing full well they either won't show up or wont be invited). Everyone thinks that seems like a reasonable idea and the PM is left with scheduling another meeting.

This scenario seems to play itself out at least once during a meeting. The trick is to just say NO (just like smoking again). Either as a member of the team or as the PM, suggest that the two people with the problem meet at one of their desks, talk through the issue, come to a resolution, implement the resolution, and give a status update at the next meeting. I know I just suggested having another meeting. I have used this in meetings several times and it seems to work.

Another meeting with the entire group has now just been avoided . That alone is a big win. Everyone is happy that they don't have another meeting scheduled and everyone can actually get work done, keeping the project from slipping. Everyone is also equally relieved that the meeting can continue.

Now it is true that two people must now meet, but they are meeting on less hostile terms. Conference rooms full of your peers can be intimidating and everyone seems to be just a bit tenser (another reason discussions seem to spiral out of control). By having these two people in a more relaxed setting, seems to get the issue resolved faster than if you had another meeting or let the meeting continue on. Finally the two people show up at the next meeting, with a quick status update on what has been done to resolve the conflict and everything is good to go.

Please leave a comment or contact me, so that I may share your stories.

Meeting Hell Part 1

Edgardo Vega — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 08:02:00 GMT

I have done a lot of project management, since graduation. I was thrilled to be put in that role for several projects. I have learned that nothing gets people more irritated then 'Meeting Hell'. I can tell you that as a project manger and as a team member 'Meeting Hell' irritates me equally as much.

I define 'Meeting Hell' as going into one meeting and coming out scheduling three to four more and in those meetings scheduling more meetings. Soon enough no one is actually working and the project is falling further and further behind schedule. That's 'Meeting Hell'.

My first piece of advise is that the best way to stop meeting hell is don't start (like smoking). If you are already in meeting hell or would like my advise in preventing 'Meeting Hell', your going to have to wait for my next posts.

I am starting this series as a way of helping others deal with 'Meeting Hell'. I am also hoping that people will share there experiences on their blogs or in my comments. You are also welcome to email me with stories and I will post the good ones.

Note: I graduated from Virginia Tech on May 15th 2004, with degree a in CS (for those of you wondering).