#DontCarryLaptopToMeetings

In my previous blog post on habits to be kicked out, one of the habit was carrying laptop to meetings. I got a few comments (both online and face-to-face), that how difficult it is to do so. I respectfully disagree. I guess it is more to do with meeting effectiveness (or rather lack of it) which drives people to carry laptops. 

It is probably a good idea to carry the laptop to the meeting for the following purposes:
- You are taking notes
- You are presenting
- Need it to log into Skype
- Keep it as backup, so you can quickly look up for some info that might be needed
- You are so important that heavens will fall if you are not on IM for a few minutes
(may be couple more).

I find it annoying when people bring the laptop and keep working and show interest only for part of the meeting or when called out specifically. Though I'm also guilty (a bad habit I picked up at NI) of carrying the laptop, it is really downright respectful for whoever is on the stage. It just says I don't care about you, I've more important work (if that really is the case, people should not come to the meeting).

However, if you want to strictly enforce it, we need to make sure that we know how to run meetings - the meeting agenda is set, pre-read materials are sent well in advance, presenters and audience come prepared, the meeting is as short as it is really reqd, action items are noted, contentious and philosophical debates are parked if no decision is arrived and/or in cases where there is no clarity on "who has the D". I suspect most of us carry the laptop because very few of the above are happening (I've been in meetings where the organiser is wondering what to discuss after starting the meeting, people are not on time, folks that are expected to present will try to talk extempore and therefore rumble, toss random ideas without any clear thought etc., no action items get generated at the end of the meeting etc., etc., The only option then, for the people that do not want to waste time is to switch off and attend to some work). We also have some meetings that are there for historical reasons and long after they have become irrelevant (in which you'd see most of the above). There are also some people that argue to have meetings "even if we don't have an agenda", just so that we are consistent and people are in the know of whats going on (as if there is no other means to seek the info we need!!)

I've a mentor who asks the following each time he gets an invite: a. Whats the agenda, b. Whats the value add you are expecting from me, c. Whats the value add for me . You guessed it, he hardly gets any invite and remains ultra focussed on his work. More on running efficient meetings in this beautiful book - Read this before our next meeting: How we can get more done.

We can try bring about the change by following:

- Seek/circulate agenda and refuse to attend/call a meeting that has no agenda

- Seek/provide pre-reads, especially when a decision has to be made based on the info presented 

- Go prepared with questions (better still seek answers from the presenter even before the meeting)

- Make sure you are not calling the meeting or inviting someone just to be politically correct

- Show interest in other's work, you may after all learn something new. If there are many presenters, call people only for their section

- Periodically check whether the rituals that exists from past continue to be relevant (don't go on a ego trip)

- Try defaulting every meeting to 30mins (most people have a tendency to call for a 1 hr meeting), try moving weekly meeting to fortnightly, fortnightly to monthly and monthly to quarterly.

- See whether the discussions can be moved to email or on NI-Talk (so that people can respond when they find time)

- Model the right behaviour by following good meeting etiquette both as a participant and also as the chair.

- Make it explicit that it is OK to decline the meeting and that you discourage people working in the meeting

If we do some of the above, I can bet people need not have to bring their laptops.