Meeting that could have been a video. How to reclaim time from meetings?

Problem

A very interesting shift can be seen in the culture regarding different forms of conducting meetings/work organization. Just a few years ago, around the pandemic, meetings were something natural and desirable. They were treated as a measure of productivity.

However, for some time now, a trend in the opposite direction has been visible. Excess meetings are a productivity killer. It knocks specialists out of the flow state and prevents deep work, which brings the greatest value.

My stance

I'm starting to sign under this. I come to the conclusion that meetings should:

• Have a plan, specific needs to be met, and a goal
• Be as short as possible, taking into account the needs of free communication and exhausting the topic
• If they are not needed, it should be handled asynchronously, via email. ESPECIALLY if participants do not have current knowledge and need to familiarize themselves with sources

My subjective list of when it is worth conducting and scheduling meetings:

• Company. When you like someone and want to talk to them. The key is to be aware that this is our goal. Optimize it for this goal.
• Q&A. A situation where both parties must be in constant contact, exchanging sentences. This is, for example, a discussion or a Q&A session.
• Quick decision regarding misunderstanding/urgent arrangements. When it is faster and better to call, establish specifics, and end the meeting. I call these five-minute meetings.

When do I think it is not worth conducting meetings?

• You want to present something to someone, and the other party is aware of the project/product status and will not have many questions.
• You want to ask about a non-urgent, sudden thing. You can often knock a person out of the flow state and contribute to deconcentration. Better prepare a list of things to discuss and make an appointment in a few hours/days.
• If everything is known and you meet only because you have already agreed so. Some people like it and it's okay. I don't, each of you can do a lot at the same time.

Solution

There is a very cool approach appearing recently in the world of technology. These are platforms that allow recording short video messages used to share them with clients/employees/contractors. This post is NOT sponsored.

Examples:

• Loom (prekursor)
• Cap.so (alternatywa open source, tutaj nie tylko jest dostępna za darmo, ale także masz pewność prywatności)

How does it work?

Let's show this with an example. You are recruiting a new employee and need to onboard them. Record it once. If you hire 5 people in a year, you will save exactly five times your time spent on onboarding. Instead of spending a few hours with them, you can use these platforms to prepare:

• A short 5-minute recording in which you tell and present on the screen access to accounts so that they can log in
• A short 5-minute recording in which you present and talk about the way of communicating with clients using examples
• A short 5-minute recording in which you show how to make changes in a specific part of the application.

Advantages

I see mainly two advantages:

• 1. Asynchronicity. You don't have to look for free dates in the schedule, you send information and take care of your tasks.
• 2. Scalability. This feature is a killer. You can send this recording to every subsequent client/employee, reducing time and money costs resulting from repeating the meeting.

How to implement

If you are curious, check out the pages I attached above.

If you want your own solution working in a similar way on your own website, let me know. I will gladly help you with this. I will take care of security and results.

All the best!

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