“You still want meetings. Here’s how to make them useful.”
“Though meetings are harmful, you sometimes need to get together and work a problem out. Here are some tips to make sure nobody wastes their time.
1. Begin with a specific problem. Meetings are wild horses that always try to run off course. Yoke the meeting to a specific problem. “Improve the flow on the New Entry page” is better than “Talk about New Entry page.”
2. Meet on site. Meet at the site of the problem instead of the conference room. Get in front of the code, in front of the UI, and talk about it together. Point to real things and suggest real changes.
3. End with a solution and responsible parties. Your next action will be concrete if the problem is solved. You’re ready to go when you know what will be done and by whom. If you can’t find a concrete solution, end the meeting and come back when you understand the problem better.
4. Celebrate, shut up, and do something. Celebrate the solution. It’s good when heads come together and solve a problem. It’s great when they get back to work and build the damn thing.
Say ‘Done!’ then do it!”
from http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/you_still_want_meetings_heres_how_to_make_them_useful.php
