Meetings

A few days ago I turned a page on my professional career. I reminisced on the industry changes I have seen over the past 13 years. Today I would like to blog on a significant change I have seen in the business environment. The specific topic will be the business meeting.

In 1996, my days were full of meetings. I would typically have 6-8 hours tied up attending face-to-face meetings held in reserved conference rooms. My meeting schedule was maintained on a leather bound planner that contained a page for each day, and space for meeting notes. Meeting schedules could be recorded in pen, because they were planned a week or more in advance, and were rarely rescheduled.

Every meeting had a PAL, the acronym for Purpose, Agenda and Limits. Many people would not attend a meeting if a PAL was not distributed beforehand. PAL's were usually not followed closely, but served to convince the invitees they needed to be at the meeting. Once the meeting started, the leader or most dominate personality in the room would take the discussion wherever they wanted it to go.

Conference room reservations would require the number of attendees, food/drink, room setup instructions, and any audio/video equipment needed. It is humorous now, but the most requested piece of equipment in those meetings was a overhead transparency projector. PowerPoint decks were printed to transparencies and displayed on the projector. Notes were hand written onto a transparency projected for all to see.

Food and drink were always served during meetings. Pastries or donuts would usually be served at morning meetings along with pots of coffee and pitchers of juice. A sandwich lunch might be served during noon meetings, and cookies and soda were always served during afternoon meetings.

Around 2001, business meetings began to change. That change was brought about by the need to reduce expense. Moving from a monopoly to a competitive environment, coupled with the economic downturn following the 9/11 terrorist attacks forced the company to streamline. Initially the changes were minor. Food and drink was discouraged unless a vendor was picking up the bill. Off site meetings were restricted in favor of on site conference rooms. Technology also began to enable alternatives to traditional meetings. Conference calls reduced travel and allowed attendees to multi-task. Web Ex and other online meeting software accelerated the change away from face-to-face meetings.

Business meetings of today bear little resemblance to the meeting of the late 1990's. It is rare that I attend a face-to-face meeting. Nearly every meeting is a conference call with material shared via LiveMeeting. Since all attendees participate from their desks, many do not pay attention to the call. Instead, they listen for their name as they work on other tasks. It is ridiculously often that a question is repeated to someone who was not paying attention and called to answer.

On the other extreme of today's meetings are the background conversations made possible by text messaging and Instant Messenger. I have held or attended many calls were the important work was going on via IM between a couple of people. Those two would then announce that an agreed upon solution was just identified. I have also sent and received text messages during face to face meetings from someone in the room. Okay, whatever works I guess.

This new style of meeting also enables project teams or work group to be geographically diverse, but still effective. I have actually had a team member fully participate in all meetings and projects while he was visiting an ill mother for 4 months in India. It was as if he never left.

Overall, I guess the new meeting style is fine. It definitely saves money, however is far less personal. Building teams and working together requires effort from both the leader and the participants. Regardless whether it is good or bad, it is here to stay.