It doesn’t have to be a meeting

Daniele Catalanotto
Service Design Magazine

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Often people don’t know that there are different tools that make it possible to collaborate. The tool that everyone knows are meetings.

A toolbox with one tool

It feels to me that when it comes to collaboration in the workplace we have a big toolbox that has only one tool. Imagine if you had to build a chair only with a hammer. Sure it’s possible, but that would be a painful experience and the chair might look funny in the end.

It’s not that meetings are bad per se. It’s just that when it’s the only tool you have for collaboration then it starts to become a bad tool.

And then meeting suck

What happens when meetings are our only tool? Let me share a few studies findings with you:

According to Doodle’s 2019 State of Meetings report, the cost of poorly organized meetings in 2019 will reach $399 billion in the U.S. and $58 billion in the U.K — Source

Half of meetings are considered meetings wasted time — Source

What are the alternatives?

Workshops

If you know me, you know that I believe that workshops can be a pretty good way to collaborate in the workplace. I’ve even written a free book on that topic. In fact, this article is based on a section of the book “Why do workshops work?”, if you are interested in that topic check it out as it’s a free book 🎁

Asynchronous collaboration

Also, often asynchronous work can be a great way to collaborate. Instead of meeting for hours to discuss a document, why not just send that document with three little challenges that frame how you would love your colleague to improve it?

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A swiss service designer who thinks that the best hobby in the world is to help others — catalanotto.ch