Stand-Up To Meeting Madness

What’s the biggest waste of a rep’s time?  Well, coming second of course, but post-deal fire-fighting and spurious meetings run this close.

I mention this as I had a nightmare journey to Cambridge from London.  A plastic bag wrapped around a power-line and all hell broke loose on the rail network.  There I was, fuming to my cabbie, Doug, as he drove me the 20 mins to my call from the station.  Then he joined in my ranting and we did that comedy routine where we moan about all sorts, when he landed on ‘meetings’.

Turns out he worked as an ‘enforcement officer’ for first Westminster, then Cambridge councils.  The former he rated, the latter, dimissed as useless.  And one main reason for this is their meetings-for-meetings-sake culture.  This started chat on how to speed meetings up….. so here are three examples that reinforce why you should make everyone have standing-up-only forums:

• Even centuries ago, the (unelected, unworthy) monarch realised Privy Council meetings were a waste of time, so instructed them to be conducted with the handful of participants all standing – so they’d be shorter
• That usually uninspiring sleazyjet crew thankfully impose one terrific idea, and that is all meetings in-house must take place in the fully horizontal
• And I was at a design firm in Bristol a few years back, where they felt people thought better ‘on their feet’, so had a meeting room equipped with a kinky table complete with adjustable height, permamently set to chest high, and no chairs – people could of course place their notes in front of them

All winning ideas along a quality theme I think you’ll agree