Un-Boring Meetings
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Extended Cut of my Alibis for Interaction 2016 masterclass on "hacking the meeting"
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Un-Boring Meetings
- 1. un-boring meetings Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) Alibis for Interaction November 11, 2016 c b
- 4. big, long, informational department meetings booooooo-ring (in case you wondered)
- 5. constant, small in-team ‘meetings’ during production not boring at all
- 7. Meetings are boring when we don’t give or receive something we find relevant. observation
- 8. so how do we cut straight to the relevant bits?
- 10. the problem is not how we do meetings. it’s that we do them. teaser
- 11. “Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” eliel saarinen
- 12. there are organisational contexts that make meetings both (1) unavoidably boring and (2) unavoidable. teaser
- 13. how do we redesign organisational contexts to avoid doing (unavoidably boring) meetings? the real question
- 14. but first, some hygiene
- 15. meeting design does matter* * Links at the end
- 16. meetings≈games: goals+rules+players+material define possible results
- 17. most meeting literature reiterates the same basic rules with the same clear goals One defined purpose that only a meeting can achieve clear rules The right and tight agenda with time boxes, participants, roles, activities clear feedback Ongoing visual documentation, record- keeping of decisions, actions, insights sportspersonship Commitment and mutual care basic meeting result in mind
- 18. chapter 2 Shared ground, or: Why meetings must be boring
- 19. 1. To share & deliberate information & concerns 2. To deliberate, make & share decisions why do we meet? 3. To solve problems 4. To nurture social relations • getting to know each other • being seen • catching up • … Officially recognised Workshops are better formats Often an inofficial agenda, though meetings are poor tools to achieve it
- 20. All I know All you know What’s relevant
- 21. What I know is relevant
- 22. What you know is relevant
- 23. What we know is relevant
- 25. ? but what if we don’t know what we already know?
- 26. ? i’ll tell you stuff i didn’t know you know or find irrelevant
- 27. ? you’ll tell me stuff you didn’t know i know or find irrelevant
- 28. ? and if we both come with colleagues who share ground with us …
- 29. “Some of you will already be familiar with this, but …” “This may not be relevant to everyone here, but …” common give-aways
- 30. what matters is mutually known shared ground !
- 31. game jam: small, co-located project team Continuous incidental info-sharing Continuous shared decision-making Many quick, focused 1-on-1 conversations Large known shared ground !
- 32. uni: big, dispersed, differentiated org Infrequent cross-group info-sharing Unclear cross-group decision-making Few, long, oversharing many- to-many meetings ?Small/unknown shared ground
- 33. The larger, more dispersed, and functionally differentiated the host organisation, … the less frequent incidental information-sharing, … the more unclear decision-making authority, … the more participants at the meeting (3+), … … the more meeting participants are structurally predisposed to say and hear things they find irrelevant. … the smaller the known shared ground,
- 34. chapter 3 Accountability, or: Why we still meet
- 35. if shared ground was all … … we could do it by e-mail … or wiki … and we all just read or skip as needed.* * a.k.a. “knowledge management”
- 36. and then …
- 37. “Sorry, I didn’t see that e-mail, maybe it landed in my spam folder/ you know my inbox/…”
- 38. accountability in real life: legal serving
- 39. accountability in real life: witnesses and signatures
- 40. accountability in digital life: read receipt
- 41. to act, we need accountable shared ground mutual presence I know You knowthat You know that I know that etc.
- 42. “Well you can’t say you didn’t know.” “You were at the meeting. You had the chance to say something then.” common give-aways
- 43. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? what we learned so far
- 45. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? hack #1: increase known shared ground
- 46. hack #1: increase known shared ground social streams colocation delegation to teams
- 47. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices
- 48. hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices purpose Social streams, newsletters, … nice-to-know information accountable information Read receipt black boards simple decision Doodle.com informed decision Silent briefing problem solving nurturing social ties Workshop Alibis 2017 :) ???
- 50. good meeting rules make meetings more productive and less boring …
- 51. ? but with unknown shared ground, we’re bound to bore each other.
- 52. and in big, disperse, differentiated organisations, and in groups of 3+, unknown shared ground is unavoidable. ?
- 53. we stick to meetings because they are our default for producing accountability in organisations
- 54. so: meet less (boringly) by establishing more known shared ground … social streams colocation delegation to teams
- 55. … and institute alternative ways of achieving accountability … purpose Social streams, newsletters, … nice-to-know information accountable information Read receipt black boards simple decision Doodle.com informed decision Silent briefing problem solving nurturing social ties Workshop Alibis 2017 :) ??? (or other purposes you care about).