TOMAS

Posted @ 12:07 AM on January 20, 2007

What an awesome concept - literally thinking on your feet. :)

I wonder what the psychology behind it is? Usually in a meeting, you're spread out and can afford to space out more easily, so maybe standing puts everyone in a closer vicinity and makes them feel like they're part of the action?

Nevertheless, it's such a cool find.

Josh Nankivel

Posted @ 12:33 AM on January 21, 2007

Tomas, I would say that when everyone is standing up, they have a more attentive posture which leads to a higher overall level of focus. You're more active, the blood is pumping a little more, etc. Also, people just don't like to stand for an extended period of time!

Josh Nankivel
http://www.PMStudent.com

Pragmatic Dictator » Blog Archive » links for 2007-01-21

Posted @ 03:24 PM on January 21, 2007

[...] How to Conduct Your Meetings Seen too many “scrums” that go on for ages and descend into a “social” - maybe this would help. (tags: projectmanagement) [...]

Tom

Posted @ 11:06 PM on January 21, 2007

This is right out of the Scrum playbook. Keep the meetings to 15 minutes and keep them on their feet.

Hendy Irawan

Posted @ 11:29 PM on January 21, 2007

Hmm I should try reading & commenting on Trizle standing straight up! :-)

BTW I'm trying CoComment now, you guys might wanna try it out so you don't lose Andrew's fabulous responses and your friends' comments! :-)

The Trizle Team

Posted @ 06:17 AM on January 23, 2007

Hi Tomas,

Great, great, great point! We never thought about it that way. When people are more spread out, that -- probably subconsciously -- makes them feel distant from the group. (That's probably why a lot of new ballparks and stadiums are constructing closer seats to the game).

When you're closer, you become "part" of the group. And, that drives you to contribute. Awesome idea, man.

The Trizle Team

Posted @ 06:22 AM on January 23, 2007

Hi Josh,

Great comment, man! You guys are really rocking with the great input. With more attentiveness, you're making yourself (and the group) much more productive. A 30 minute meeting becomes a 10 minute meeting. Etc.

That's probably why you don't see basketball/football/soccer coaches sitting for prolonged periods. That keeps them more focused, and much more productive. Good stuff, Josh.

The Trizle Team

Posted @ 06:23 AM on January 23, 2007

Pragmatic Dictator rules. Please visit the awesome blog. Thanks for the link!

The Trizle Team

Posted @ 06:26 AM on January 23, 2007

Hi Tom,

You rock. We love the time limitations concept. Keep meetings short, sweet, and under 15 minutes. Besides, who would want to stand up for more than that?

The Trizle Team

Posted @ 06:29 AM on January 23, 2007

Hi Hendy,

Haha! You should. We're responding so late to your comments, and we do apologize about that. I have your email I still have to respond to as well! We're under tight deadlines this week as I think we might've overbooked ourselves (we should take that as a sign and write an article about this, btw).

Hendy, you keep providing value to us. Thank you!

-Andrew

Rich

Posted @ 12:06 PM on February 10, 2007

While standing up gets people to realize is a meeting pace. Meeting pace takes many things into consideration. Scrum uses several things to manage meeting pace. The most important is having everyone who attends be prepared to contribute.

Being prepared to contribute involves two main things. Understanding the content of your contribution, and being prepared to deliver that content concisely.

In my team management work, I have deployed a daily "stand-up" where people don't stand up but can get through a daily status with 20 contributors in less than 10 minutes. If you think that is unbelievable, or sounds like a run-on Jimmy John's commercial, it is because the team was prepared to deliver the necessary content (delivery status for weekly iteration) as 3 numbers. Only if the numbers revealed a problem was the contributor expected to reveal the detail behind. Is this extreme? Yes! Effective? Yes? Did it take a while to get used to? Hell Yes!!!

Can most meetings benefit from this approach - Only if you can dictate (like a boss) what content each contributor will deliver, and provide a concise template for them to use (3 numbers). As long as either of these things are not deterministic, then contributors are free to make it up as they go, and are much more likely to show up unprepared.

Elisa Davis

Posted @ 09:46 PM on March 06, 2007

I'm all for making meeetings more quicker, but how does this necesarily make meetings more productive? I've been pretty successful using a meeting software called Meeting Sense. Keeps everything running smoothly... http://www.meetingsoftware.com

Elisa Davis

Posted @ 09:47 PM on March 06, 2007

sorry, wrong url. it's actually http://www.meetingsense.com