The First Rule of Meet Club: Do we really need to meet?

While traipsing through the halls of a local high tech startup, I chanced across this laminated set of rules in the cafeteria.

Why the cafeteria? Because that’s a high traffic area and it’s important that everyone get the message: meetings cost time and money, so think about what you’re doing! The first rule of Meet Club is to ask this question: Do we really need to meet?

Do we really need to meet?

You don’t see people asking “Do we really need to write code?” That’s because most people understand that there’s a reason for writing code, but they don’t understand the (valid) reasons for having a meeting. We think this is a bit of a shame and you can see our post about Why We’re Focusing on Meetings for more perspective.

Anyway, back to the rules. In case you’re reading this without an image viewer, here they are. We can really get behind all of these and, for the process pieces, have built-in support in Lucid Meetings that make “doing the right thing” the natural, easy thing. I especially appreciate the cultural strength of rule #8 – permission is explicitly granted to be your own advocate!

Meeting Rules

Do we really need to meet?
Schedule a start, not an end to your meeting – it’s over when it’s over, even if that’s just 5 minutes.
Be on time!
No multi-tasking … no device usage unless necessary for the meeting
If you’re not getting anything out of the meeting, leave
Meetings are not for information sharing – that should be done before the meeting via email and/or agenda
Who really needs to be at this meeting?
Agree to action items, if any, at the conclusion of the meeting
Don’t feel bad about calling people out on any of the above; it’s the right thing to do.