How to Get a Meeting Back on Track

[snopes]

There is a lot of folklore about Microsoft, but I hope this urban legend is true: They say that at Microsoft, at least in certain circles, you don’t have to sit through boring meetings. You have to give the presenter 10 minutes. After that, you are free to go if you’re bored or if the meeting isn’t relevant to your work. Can you imagine how empowering it would be to stand up, smile, and waft out of the room when a meeting goes wrong?

http://www.businessweek.com/careers/...811_811253.htm

[diddy]

I dunno, but If i did that at a meeting, I would get a lot of dirty looks from people including the presenter.

[CannonFodder]

Originally Posted by diddy

I dunno, but If i did that at a meeting, I would get a lot of dirty looks from people including the presenter.

If the presenter is wasting my time I might be willing to risk the dirty look.

[llewtrah]

Stand up meetings may be the answer - no seats means no wandering attention and no padding in presentations. But it's a b*gger taking notes.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Stand up meetings may be the answer - no seats means no wandering attention and no padding in presentations. But it's a b*gger taking notes.

What about promenade meetings. Or "in the round"?

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

What about promenade meetings. Or "in the round"?

Just think what would have happened to the Round Table if Arthur had implemented stand-up meetings.

(Some of ours are more like stand up comedy, and that's NOT a good thing)

[Penny]

There is a lot of folklore about Microsoft, but I hope this urban legend is true: They say that at Microsoft, at least in certain circles, you don’t have to sit through boring meetings. You have to give the presenter 10 minutes. After that, you are free to go if you’re bored or if the meeting isn’t relevant to your work.

I don't know where she found this but it certainly doesn't fit with anything I've observed at MS. There's no 10-minute rule I've seen; either it's a team meeting and you really should stay for the whole thing (leaving early would be rude), or it's an optional meeting (such as a training session) and you don't have to be there at all. I've been to meetings that are a waste of time and the response from my boss has always been, "If you're not getting anything from them, don't go."

Then again, I'm an engineer. But there are people whose role it is to communicate across teams and who are constantly in meetings. I'm friends with several of them and never heard of this rule from them either.

[iam1funnychick]

My husband is an effective planner/scheduler. The person who is right above him can stretch 10 minutes of needed information into a 3 hour meeting. I'm not joking at all. 2 meetings a week, at least.

If you calculate what they make and how much time they are wasting, it's a shame. Just a big shame and such a loss.

I joke that my husband's company schedules meetings to discuss what caterer they should use for the next planning meeting to plan the meeting after that. It's seriously that bad.

There's a chance my husband could be employed by the company mentioned in the first post by the end of the month. Please send vibes/thoughts/prayers this way...LOL.

[lynnejanet]

We have "stand up" meetings all the time, that last anywhere from 10 minutes to 40. Administration seems to use them to circumvent our union's rules about how many staff meetings, of what length, can be held in a certain time period. Because they are not really allowed, some teachers I work with skip them, and get the info from those who go.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Just think what would have happened to the Round Table if Arthur had implemented stand-up meetings.

(Some of ours are more like stand up comedy, and that's NOT a good thing)

If your meetings are like stand-up comedy, try heckling.

[guruwan2b]

When one of our last enginners was still here we initiated a code phrase for when our manager got way off track. It was "flaming squirrels". We actually used it several times and the manager didn't notice anything. The rest of us had to try to keep a straight face. Can you imagine hearing "The last shipment was held up due to flaming squrrels, but we have been reimbursed the cost."

We got it from a Dilbert. Something about flaming squirrels are eating my tongue... or something like that.
I would love to walk out if a meeting wasn't pertinent to my job... Not gonna happen, though.

[Tarquin Farquart]

In my previous job, the manager used to say "basically" a lot. Someone pointed this out to me and after that, I found it very difficult to keep a straight face during his meetings.