Best Way to Speed Up Meetings? Make Everybody Stand
If everyone in the office grumbles when there’s mention of another meeting to add to already busy schedules, managers may want to take note of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Atomic Object.
This software-development firm holds its mandatory company meetings first thing in the morning. Chitchat is kept to a minimum. And everyone is required to stand.
“Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become synonymous with sloth,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The goal of stand-ups is to keep meetings short and focused.
Stand-up meetings have been used by the military since WWI, but the current trend is being fueled by what the WSJ reports is a growing use of “Agile,” an approach to software development born out by a manifesto published in 2001. In addition to compressing projects into short pieces, the method also involves daily stand-up meetings.
Participants are each supposed to share quick updates on three things: What they’ve done since the previous meeting; what they’re doing today; and any obstacles they’re facing.
Read about Agile as it might apply to lawyers:
Legal Rebels: “Avoiding Complexity: An Agile Manifesto for Lawyers”
Legal Rebels: “Getting Comfortable with Risk: The Agile Manifesto Revisited”
