Tired of Meetings? Here Are Some Alternatives

The pandemic doesn't stop people from meeting. Now, we still have meetings, but from home. But do these meetings even matter? Should we reduce the amount of meetings? 

There's a lot of money involved when you gather multiple employees for an hour while they could be getting their jobs done instead. It's clear to see that spending our days in meetings is not the most valuable use of time.

Is there anything that can replace meetings? Here are some alternatives:

 

8 Alternatives to Meetings

 

1. Email 

Are you trying to update your colleagues on project status? Do you want to gather some feedback on a task you've recently completed?

Though our first instinct is to create a meeting and discuss it, we should fight the instinct and just compose a nicely structured email instead.

Likewise, if you are invited to a meeting that you don't think you have anything to add, but you still would like to know what happened, you can just ask for the meeting minutes later. 

 

2. Collaborative tech 

Collaborative apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts allow us to collaborate on documents or ideas from day one, with the team members you would regularly invite to a meeting.

 

3. Brainstorming board 

If your team is trying to generate ideas, you don't need to do it in-person. Many team members are likely to develop the best ideas when they are not on the spot. You can use programs such as Trello and Asana to create a board accessible to every team member. If you're working in the office, you can do it the old school way with a whiteboard in the middle of the office.

 

4. FAQ sheets and videos

Another excellent choice for creating reference material accessible to everyone is by writing up FAQs in document or video form. The method is straightforward and easy to produce, and you can cover some of the most crucial points without involving anyone in a meeting.

Some virtual meetings take long times too.
 

5. Checklists and brisk meetings 

For usual meetings, such as the one-to-one meetings, you can prepare a checklist for the meeting, which attendees fill out early on. Start every discussion with the same inquiry: "What were the action points from our previous meeting?" before going through a list of open questions and end it by summarising actions for both parties to take away.

 

6. Daily huddle

This method takes no longer than 15 minutes every day, deals with small problems and takes place at the same time and location every day, asking the same questions every time.

 

7. Create a video presentation

Suppose you need to show something visually, such as using new software or navigating the changes to an internal system. In that case, a video presentation could be the best way to tour the information quickly. This method not only allows you to skip a meeting, but it also gives team members useful reference material to refer to later.

 

8. Round-up emails 

It's vital for good communication and morale that teams are updated with what everybody else is working on. You can have an internal communications employee to compile the best of the week's news and making sure everyone reads it. It is much quicker than inviting everyone to sit in a room listening to people speaking for an hour or more.

 

These are eight alternatives that are way better than a meeting. Of course, there are times that require us to sit down for a long meeting. But these alternatives are perfect for other situations that could otherwise waste everybody's time.

Sources: One Legal & Think Productive

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