Pulling sense from meetings

Companies have meetings. It’s a thing they do. Most have many, some have few. Some are large, some are small. But within the world of tech meetings are a recurrent need.

Many meetings are unnecessary, but some are essential.

Some are intended to proclaim information, while others are needed for collaboration. The former should be rare, and the latter should be used wisely.

Earlier in my career I had a period of time where I attended many, many, meetings. They were highly technical and I was brought in to document requirements.

At first everything went over my head. But little by little my documentation started to help change how the meetings operated.

Eventually I started to capture things live, with whiteboard sketches, showing the team where the discussion was flowing with diagrams, and showing where we were re-treading old ground.

It offered the chance to take something that could have been completely boring and overwhelming, and turned it into a collaborative occasion where my involvement was requested rather than tolerated.

If you’re involved in a bunch of meetings and finding yourself checked-out (first off, try to get out of the meeting), there may be an opportunity to diagram or document and provide value—ultimately leading into better opportunities.