Meeting at Apple and Google-style. How to achieve this?

Meeting in a modern society is considered to be a waste of time on this subject, there are many memes and cartoons. But it is quite difficult to do without meeting with any project, where more than 3 employees. The problem is not in the meetings, the problem is rather inept in their organization and fuzzy goals. We offer a look at the great companies and to learn from them how to carry out high-cost meeting.

meetings in the field experiments conducted over the past decade in start-ups and companies in the Fortune 500, have led to positive results. From the experience of these companies emerges a set of rules, among which are the three universal:

1. All meetings shall be clearly stated purpose or agenda. Without the agenda of the meeting can easily become a pointless exercise, rather than a productive working session.

2. The meeting should go to him with a clear understanding of what are the next steps to take. The most successful companies require employees to leave the meeting with a specific list of tasks.

3. At the meeting it should be clearly defined end time.

Without specifying the duration of the meeting, you are thereby stimulating incoherent talk off topic.

Of course, it is not necessary to dwell on these three points. Really productive companies are always adapt and customize the rules of the meetings in accordance with their particular culture.

Apple

In the era of Steve Jobs when Apple became the largest company in the world, they tried to maintain the principles that have been in the beginning.

— Each component of the project or task is "NIGHT". According to journalist Adam Lachine, At each meeting Apple has directly responsible person whose name is on all the agenda items for the performance of which he is responsible. Since each task has a responsibility, in the Apple rarely confusion with those that should perform.

— Be prepared to challenge and be contested. There are many stories about Jobs' ability to bring their employees, even to tears, exposing their ideas and proposals in question is quite an aggressive form. You can not bring your employees to tears, but everyone should be prepared to defend their ideas and work with honest criticism.

Catalyst

Catalyst - a group of young Christian leaders from the southern states of America, focuses on the fact that the meetings were held in a positive way and preserved the freedom of the spirit. Here are their principles, which may also be useful:

— The principle is always to answer "Yes" and never "No". Keep a positive attitude and the ability to express all the ideas, not shouting over each other and closing the original proposals.

— Break every 30 minutes. If your meeting lasts longer than half an hour, make sure that visitors can climb out of the room and ventilate the brain.

— Think and dream without any restrictions. Their time will come later.

Google

In a recent issue of "Think With Google», Google vice president of business operations Kristen Gil told including how the company has revised its approach to meetings. Here are some excerpts:

— All meetings should be clearly defined, the decision-making person. This approach helps the team a big ship Google+ introduce more than 100 new features 90 days after their announcement.

— The meeting should be no more than 10 people. "For participation in meetings you do not get a special medal," she writes.

— If you decide you need a meeting, do not pull it. Otherwise, the company's development speed will be limited to the schedule of meetings. If you need to hold a meeting to do something, pass it as quickly as possible.

— Kill ideas and meetings. After Larry Page succeeded Eric Schmidt to the position CEO Google, he closed projects Buzz, Code Search and applications for the desktop. He focused on the more important products. Focus should be present in all the affairs of the company, including in meetings.

37Signals

As to the company 37Signals, they would have killed all of the meeting, limiting all discussion via email and IM. The company's best-selling book, Rework, they are urged to remember that "every minute you spend in the meeting, you can spend on a real job." In fact, the company even came up with in 2011 National Day Boycott Meetings. But if you absolutely must meet, for this purpose there are three rules:

— Be brief. No, even shorter. And use a timer to meet deadlines.

— It should be the agenda.

— So invite a small number of people as possible.

Reily

New Orleans company that produces food and beverages, Reily, was mentioned in the book «Good Boss, Bad Boss» Robert Sutton. The company practices the meeting standing (stand up meeting), which have become so popular in Agile software development.

— Meetings should take place at the same time. Maintenance of rhythm to avoid situations where the actual work of employees is suddenly interrupted.

— Stand up meetings are designed for interaction and communication, and not for making specific decisions. If your team regularly scheduled meeting, stand up, "lack of communication" is no longer an excuse when problems arise. Interaction and communication - to stand up meetings, for large discussions - meeting.

And how do you spend your meeting?