Chances are, you’ve seen someecards.com or countless others’ memes along the lines of, “I survived another meeting that should have been an email.” When there are multiple Etsy stores selling t-shirts and mugs with the slogan, you know there has got to be a cultural phenomenon going on. What’s up with our business culture “meeting to meet” with no real purpose in mind?
I have a theory.
With more people telecommuting than ever before, and one in five people working from home — this number is expected to rise 63% in the next five years — we don’t get as much face time (not to be confused with FaceTime).
Add to this the increased use of email, playing voicemail “phone tag,” and even an increase in work texting after hours with co-workers or clients, and it feels like we never turn work “off.” You would think we are communicating about work quite enough, only where is the real human interaction in each of these scenarios? Are we as a culture so lonely for “old school” in-person meeting interactions that we are willing to have useless meetings just to say we did?
Take the suggestions presented by Inc.’s recent article: How a real leader runs a company meeting.
There’s also a video at the bottom of the article by Mint.com and Fountain founder Aaron Patzer, admitting, “I don’t like meetings.” As an alternative, he prefers stand-up meetings with small teams for only 10-15 minutes.
With writers across the country, Shift Key frequently uses Skype, Zoom or other video platform for conducting meetings in small teams per client project. As a fun exercise to breathe some life and personality into the meetings, sometimes attendees are tasked with one personal assignment ahead of time to share with the group, such as, “What is your favorite quote?” or “What is your all-time favorite song?” The idea is to provide an opportunity for more personal connection for our writers (freelance writing from home can be a doubly isolating job at times) — while not sacrificing too much meeting time or productivity.
What are tips your company utilizes for better, more productive meetings?
Image credit: You can actually buy these gold-foiled blue ribbons here.
At Shift Key, we make communication capital. We are journalists who know how to create original content, the foundational layer of digital marketing. We understand audience and the information your audience wants — whether you are an agency, brand, company or non-profit. Content is the bedrock of digital marketing. Shift Key creates unique and informative content that feeds marketing activities across a mounting number of channels, generating buzz for brands and leads for products and services.