You think the topic at hand is beneath you, or a waste of time? You’re absolutely wrong.
This article is absolutely wrong.
1. The correct leadership action if the meeting is insufficiently contentful or valuable isn't to double down on the time waste, it's to kill the meeting.
In addition to being absolutely wrong, it's also missing some useful meeting cases where multitasking is net positive. For instance:
2. There is a common mode of messy meeting (collaborative workshopping) where various people may know something tangential that the core participants might or might not need. Being ambiently available to to pull in or not can add value, and save everyone time versus having to stop and rebook if some occasional input becomes necessary. The tradeoff for the otherwise idle wait state is fine if the optional attendees are keeping up with busywork while being available for the interrupt. This mode enables ad hoc participation on as needed basis without participant-wide productivity loss.
Caveat: Both of these only work in a culture of mutual and non-hierarchical respect.
Comments
This article is absolutely wrong.
1. The correct leadership action if the meeting is insufficiently contentful or valuable isn't to double down on the time waste, it's to kill the meeting.
In addition to being absolutely wrong, it's also missing some useful meeting cases where multitasking is net positive. For instance:
2. There is a common mode of messy meeting (collaborative workshopping) where various people may know something tangential that the core participants might or might not need. Being ambiently available to to pull in or not can add value, and save everyone time versus having to stop and rebook if some occasional input becomes necessary. The tradeoff for the otherwise idle wait state is fine if the optional attendees are keeping up with busywork while being available for the interrupt. This mode enables ad hoc participation on as needed basis without participant-wide productivity loss.
Caveat: Both of these only work in a culture of mutual and non-hierarchical respect.
Also, the large zoom meeting where everyone is clearly on their phone or something is a pox.
Previously, with 132 points and 79 comments on Jan 26, 2018:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16237568