www.fastcompany.com: Meetings, am I right? As the world has adapted to remote life, there’s nothing quite as soul-sucking as seeing your calendar lined up with a day full of back-to-back Zoom meetings. Part of the dread is that you don’t even know if they’re going to be a good use of your time—or worse, you know they won’t be but still feel like you have to show your face.
3 comments:
Although I agree with a lot of the information presented here, I think it's easier said than done and there is a certain amount of relearning that needs to happen for this to be properly adaptable for some of us in this school in particular. I think that for those of us who are seniors- the idea of not calling meetings on top of not being able to check in with people personally on our day to day in the building is actually pretty daunting. Other parts of it makes sense- you're always doing work before the meetings- that hasn't changed. The main part of this new way of working that I think CMU Drama needs to get a hold of is how to keep people working and engaged. Truth be told, our "why" has changed because by nature, this isn't that fun anymore. We're trying to do the most with not being able to seek advice, not doing an actual show, we're really just working individually and trying really hard to call it a team sport. I really do wish I had the answer or solution to this but nothing I can come up with would suffice for my standards.
Although I may not be conducting many meetings any time soon, I do partake in many of them. I found the tips to be very good observations. It was interesting connecting the attributes the article mentioned to things that I as an attendee enjoy from Zoom calls. Not that they are necessarily enjoyable, but they do make them flow seamlessly. For example, settling things that could be done over email should do so, while still placing importance on having actual conversations. Beyond the disarray that the events from this year have caused, I could gather a lot of useful tips on meetings from the article. Meetings are unavoidable, so even if I do choose to do something outside of theater, I know I can carry these skills moving forward with my professional career. As time marches forward, I think its good positive things have been able to emerge from our current situation, even if those are just meeting tips.
Agreeing with those above, there are definitely applicable pieces of advice in this article that could go a long way, especially in the age of digital meetings via zoom. In particular, I like the idea of seeing what can just be done via a pre-recorded video. Personally, I like to play lectures and things like this back at 1.5x speed at least, saving me a lot of time without sacrificing anything (except awkward pauses and filler words). Video documentation also helps in the long run because it provides a full version of the 'meeting minutes', which in my experience often leave more to be desired in terms of details. In the end, though, I think one of the biggest problems in meetings is ego. There are a lot of people that I have had meetings with that like to turn the conversation back around to them, especially in the world of production. This then turns into a discussion between two departments that leaves everyone else by the wayside. I think a good way to solve this is what the article notes: prioritize beforehand. In a communicative organization, issues between departments shouldn't come up as a surprise during large group meetings. Ask yourself: what is it that can be accomplished in the group setting that CANNOT be accomplished without everyone. Prioritize those discussions, and then break off for smaller conversations between departments.
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