Availability-based meeting anti-patterns

In a prior post, I discussed three meeting “anti-patterns” regarding the use of laptops during meetings. Here, I discuss two availability-based meeting anti-patterns.

There aren’t any conference rooms available

Have you ever tried to have a quick chat with a few people, but ended up talking in a hallway because all the conference rooms were full? Well, then you’ve experienced the There Aren’t Any Conference Rooms Available pattern. Being a conscientious co-worker, you know that having a discussion with two or three other people in your cube can be distracting to those around you, so when such conversations arise, you go looking for a conference room. But they’re all full. You then start making a second round, trying to find a meeting that’s about to wrap up. It’s then you notice that one of the rooms is occupied by two folks, each of whom have their own offices. With real walls, doors, and everything. Then you find another room with a team — and it looks like they’re having a good time! They obviously can’t be having a serious meeting. That’s because they’re not; they reserved the room for an hour, and it only took 15 minutes to finish up their business, so they’re going to stay in the room because it’s theirs! It’s the principle, after all.

Both of those scenarios are true (I was the one looking for an open room). There are a few things that a company can do to avoid this type of problem. First, make sure there’s a small room available that cannot be scheduled that is used only for short, impromptu meetings. Also make sure that there’s a whiteboard in the room for brainstorming. Next, make sure that people with offices (executives and managers, typically) use their offices in lieu of taking up a conference room (leaving the rooms for people who do real work ). Lastly, institute a policy that discourages keeping a meeting going until all time has expired; if you finish all the agenda items, close the meeting and leave the room.

The Next Time We’re All Available To Meet Is In Two Weeks

Now, another ripped from the headlines all too true story: You have a bona fide need for a meeting. You fire up your meeting scheduler, set the appropriate meeting length, create the most beautiful meeting agenda known to mankind, and the click the “auto schedule” button, and your jaw drops at the result. You’ve just encountered the Next Time We’re All Available To Meet Is In Two Weeks pattern. There are a few possible causes for this. One is that your company has too many meetings. There should be no better way to demonstrate this to your executive management than by showing them the schedules of those you need in your meeting, and explaining to them that your critical meeting (it is critical, right? Otherwise you don’t really need a meeting) is being delayed by two weeks because of the excess of meetings. Be prepared to show examples of meetings with dubious need, such as hour-long status meetings.

Another reason is that some of the people on your invite list, in an attempt to ensure they get things done, are blocking out chunks of time on their calendars to avoid meetings. (Full disclosure: I do this every so often, even though I know I shouldn’t.) The reason for this is the same: your company has too many meetings of a dubious nature. If meetings were less frequent, and the meetings that were held actually provided value, people wouldn’t need to block out their calendar to get things done.

Something you can do to avoid this altogether is to ensure you’re inviting the absolute minimum number of people required to have a successful meeting. Are you really sure that inviting someone with a full calendar is adding value to your meeting? Remember, there is more to a meeting than just sitting in a room and talking. There is preparation, and time required to act upon items assigned during the meeting; if someone’s calendar is always full, they will not have the requisite time to do either. Aside from lowering the chances of a scheduling collision, inviting the bare minimum should be considered as “the right thing to do” simply because you will not be wasting other people’s time by including them in a meeting in which they will have little to no input.