Category: Thoughts

The following is a thought piece I wrote for the internal Plastiq wiki. I wanted to share it in case others may find it useful for their place of work. Please be in touch with any questions, comments, or suggestions! A document like this only gets better with iteration.

Meetings are useful for two reasons and two reasons only: information sharing and decision making.  A meeting should be called for one, the other, or both reasons.

Importantly, when I refer to “meetings”, I don’t mean ad hoc chats that may arise spontaneously around the office, although it’s important to be mindful of those too.  Rather, meetings in this context refer to a time and place reserved for a set list of attendees to gather together and accomplish a well-defined goal.  They can range from the informal (one-on-one catchups) to the formal (exec weeklys), and generally they would be well-served to follow some general guidelines.

So, without further ado, here are my 11 tips for productive meetings (in no particular order)…

I always wondered about artists, and how their work must often be inspired by the people in their lives.  What joy and pride it must bring someone to know that a beautiful love poem was penned in their name!  And to an equal measure, what mixture of horror and sadness must accompany words about hate or betrayal.

I’ve written songs and poetry since I was in grade school, and my close friends often make fun of the fact that an overwhelming majority of my compositions are about happiness and love.  In truth, it’s because I’ve often struggled with allowing myself to publish negative emotions about people.