Matt Law

List of Google mashups / projects from around the world

A collection of awesome Google-related projects from people around the world, some good ones here:

1. Global Billboard
2. YouTubeDisko
3. Translate beat box
4. Google Chrome - Canopy
5. You are here

How many meetings is too many meetings?

Following on from my earlier post about 'brainstorming' I was interested to read about the new book from the guys behind 37signals - the productivity people behind basecamp. It's called Re:work and it's about getting stuff done, a topic close to my heart. You can download a preview PDF here. I am not sure if I totally agree with their comments on meetings as they see them (perhaps rightly) as a block to actually doing things, and this makes them Bad and Wrong.

I certainly have worked with a couple of companies where all the marketing people are in meetings all day long and then work in the evening, and you wonder if all this group activity and consensus building actually helps make better products in the end.

At their worst I think meetings are responsibility sharing mechanisms. Building excuses for failure and sharing the blame: "it wasn't my fault, we agreed it in a meeting".  However, many of the same principles apply for meetings as they do for brainstorms, you are essentially exchanging productivity for team building and developing a shared sense of purpose. I heard something interesting the other day, in that at least 50% of the purpose of a meeting has got nothing to do with the work, it is about engendering the feeling of joint responsibility and having a common goal. 

Nonetheless, the following tips from the 37signals people may be helpful if you find yourself in 6 hours of meetings today:

• Set a timer. When it rings, meeting’s over. Period.
• Invite as few people as possible.
• Always have a clear agenda.
• Begin with a specific problem.
• Meet at the site of the problem instead of a conference room. Point to real things and suggest real changes.
• End with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it.

Mandarin lessons anyone?

"By 2011, McKinsey research suggests, China should have a lower middle class of 290 million people; by 2025, the upper middle class will be 520 million strong, with staggering disposable wealth. For many multinationals, this is the market of the future."

N.B. 1 renminbi = approx 13 cents

From McKinsey

Avoiding Groupthink

1. Leaders should assign each member the role of “critical evaluator”. This allows each member to freely air objections and doubts.
2. Higher-ups should not express an opinion when assigning a task to a group.
3. The organization should set up several independent groups, working on the same problem.
4. All effective alternatives should be examined.
5. Each member should discuss the group's ideas with trusted people outside of the group.
6. The group should invite outside experts into meetings. Group members should be allowed to discuss with and question the outside experts.
7. At least one group member should be assigned the role of devil’s advocate. This should be a different person for each meeting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink