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un-boring meetings Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) Alibis for Interaction November 11, 2016

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chapter 1 Introduction

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are meetings boring?

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big, long, informational department meetings booooooo-ring (in case you wondered)

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constant, small in-team ‘meetings’ during production not boring at all

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when are meetings boring?

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Meetings are boring when we don’t give or receive something we find relevant. observation

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so how do we cut straight to the relevant bits?

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we can’t. teaser

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the problem is not how we do meetings. it’s that we do them. teaser

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“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” eliel saarinen

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there are organisational contexts that make meetings both (1) unavoidably boring and (2) unavoidable. teaser

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how do we redesign organisational contexts to avoid doing (unavoidably boring) meetings? the real question

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but first, some hygiene

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meeting design does matter* * Links at the end

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meetings≈games: goals+rules+players+material define possible results

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most meeting literature reiterates the same basic rules with the same clear goals One defined purpose that only a meeting can achieve clear rules The right and tight agenda with time boxes, participants, roles, activities clear feedback Ongoing visual documentation, record- keeping of decisions, actions, insights sportspersonship Commitment and mutual care basic meeting result in mind

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chapter 2 Shared ground, or: Why meetings must be boring

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1. To share & deliberate information & concerns 2. To deliberate, make & share decisions why do we meet? 3. To solve problems 4. To nurture social relations • getting to know each other • being seen • catching up • … Officially recognised Workshops are better formats Often an inofficial agenda, though meetings are poor tools to achieve it

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All I know All you know What’s relevant

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What I know is relevant

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What you know is relevant

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What we know is relevant

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extending shared ground

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extending shared ground

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? but what if we don’t know what we already know?

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? i’ll tell you stuff i didn’t know you know or find irrelevant

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? you’ll tell me stuff you didn’t know i know or find irrelevant

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? and if we both come with colleagues who share ground with us …

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“Some of you will already be familiar with this, but …” “This may not be relevant to everyone here, but …” common give-aways

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what matters is mutually known shared ground !

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game jam: small, co-located project team Continuous incidental info-sharing Continuous shared decision-making Many quick, focused 1-on-1 conversations Large known shared ground !

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uni: big, dispersed, differentiated org Infrequent cross-group info-sharing Unclear cross-group decision-making Few, long, oversharing many- to-many meetings ? Small/unknown shared ground

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The larger, more dispersed, and functionally differentiated the host organisation, … the less frequent incidental information-sharing, … the more unclear decision-making authority, … the more participants at the meeting (3+), … … the more meeting participants are structurally predisposed to say and hear things they find irrelevant. … the smaller the known shared ground,

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chapter 3 Accountability, or: Why we still meet

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if shared ground was all … … we could do it by e-mail … or wiki … and we all just read or skip as needed.* * a.k.a. “knowledge management”

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and then …

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“Sorry, I didn’t see that e-mail, maybe it landed in my spam folder/ you know my inbox/…”

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accountability in real life: legal serving

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accountability in real life: witnesses and signatures

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accountability in digital life: read receipt

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to act, we need accountable shared ground mutual presence I know You know that You know that I know that etc.

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“Well you can’t say you didn’t know.” “You were at the meeting. You had the chance to say something then.” common give-aways

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1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? what we learned so far

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chapter 4 Advanced meeting avoidance

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1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? hack #1: increase known shared ground

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hack #1: increase known shared ground social streams colocation delegation to teams

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1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with little known shared ground and … 2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need accountable information and decision-sharing. 3. Ergo, despair? hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices

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hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices purpose Social streams, newsletters, … nice-to-know information accountable information Read receipt black boards simple decision Doodle.com informed decision Silent briefing problem solving nurturing social ties Workshop Alibis 2017 :) ???

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chapter 5 Summary

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good meeting rules make meetings more productive and less boring …

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? but with unknown shared ground, we’re bound to bore each other.

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and in big, disperse, differentiated organisations, and in groups of 3+, unknown shared ground is unavoidable. ?

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we stick to meetings because they are our default for producing accountability in organisations

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so: meet less (boringly) by establishing more known shared ground … social streams colocation delegation to teams

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… and institute alternative ways of achieving accountability … purpose Social streams, newsletters, … nice-to-know information accountable information Read receipt black boards simple decision Doodle.com informed decision Silent briefing problem solving nurturing social ties Workshop Alibis 2017 :) ??? (or other purposes you care about).

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[email protected] @dingstweets codingconduct.cc thank you.