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Is That Meeting Really Necessary?会议真的有必要吗?

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发表于 2017-4-5 09:46:38 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
“I was scheduled for 50 meetings this week.” That’s what a project managertold me recently, and they were “only” assigned to three projects. I’m sure anumber of you have similar tales—having to decide which of three or fourconcurrent meetings you will attend, always arriving late because of comingdirectly from the last meeting and having to try and catch up on emails eitherin the evening or during the meetings themselves (or both).

“我这周安排了50个会议”,一个项目经理最近和我这样说,而他仅仅负责3个项目。我相信你们中的很多人都有类似的经历:不得不在3-4个时间冲突的会议中作出选择,并且通常会由于刚刚从上一个会议赶来而迟到。通常你只有晚上处理邮件或者在会议期间处理邮件(或两者都包括)。

We might look at colleagues and comment on how ridiculous it is, butnothing ever changes and our teams end up suffering because their needs arealways the first we have to compromise. So what, if anything, can we do aboutit? Is there any way to get more control over our role?

我们也许会觉得我们同事的做法有多么可笑,但没有任何改变。我们的团队最终还是遭受着痛苦。那么,如果真的有(我们能做的),我们能够做些什么?有没有一些办法让我们更好地控制我们的角色?

It’s not normal

这不是正常的。

Let’s start bystating right up front that spending 30-plus hours a week in meetings is notpart of the job description of a project manager. I’ll be the first to saycommunication is the most critical skill a PM can have, but meetings aregenerally not effective ways to communicate. They also suck time away fromcommunication that can deliver value—working with teams on issues in a smallgroup or a one-on-one context. So before we consider what a PM can do to tryand control things a little better, let’s try and understand why this situationoccurs in the first place.

首先,每个星期花30多小时在会议上并没有写在项目经理的职位描述里。我认同,沟通能力是项目经理最重要技能,但是会议却未必是最有效的沟通方式。这些会议浪费了本应该创造价值的时间——在一个小团队里或者一对一的方式与其他成员一同工作。因此在考虑项目经理能够做些什么以便能够更好地控制局面之前,让我们首先尝试了解为什么这样的局面会发生。

The common—and easy—answer is that the department or organization is sobusy that’s just the way things are. There is a huge amount going on andeveryone is rushed off their feet. Well, there is a difference between a lothappening and being busy. In this case, the PM had three projects—and no matterhow big they are, that just doesn’t justify 50 meetings in any given week.

最常见且最简单的答案,就是这个部门或者组织是一个非常忙碌的组织,而这就是一种常态。工作量庞大并且每个人都疲于奔命。然而,庞大的工作量和忙碌的状态是有区别的。在这个场景里,那个项目经理负责3个项目,不管项目有多大,那也并不意味着要在任何一周安排50个会议要参加。

To get to that point, there has to be a culture of meetings, of needingeveryone to be involved in everything regardless of an individual’s ability tocontribute. I guarantee virtually every one of those 50 meetings will includeat least one person who never said anything, at least one person who didn’tshow up and wasn’t missed and at least one person who couldn’t tell youanything discussed in the meeting because they were focused on something elsewhile on their phone or laptop.

要达到这样的状态,肯定是有一个所谓会议的文化,需要每个人都要参与到每个事情中,无论他们自身的贡献能力有多大。我敢保证事实上在这50个会议中至少有1个人从来都不发言,至少有1个人没有出现并且没有被错过,至少有1个人无法告诉你关于会议的任何事情,因为他在开会的时候在他的手机或者笔记本电脑上面忙一些别的事情。

There may be many causes for such an environment. I have seen instanceswhere it simply involved an individual in a leadership role who was very detailoriented (a kind description) and wanted to be involved in everything. Theythen dragged in other people because they expected their staff to have the samelevel of awareness and attention, plus all of the people even peripherallyinvolved in the area under discussion.

形成这样的文化氛围有很多原因。我了解到的一个情况是,一个领导者非常关注细节,并想参与所有的事情。领导者让其他人参与进来,是因为他期望他的员工具备同样的意识和重视的程度,甚至要求所有这个会议主题关系不太大的同事也要参与讨论。

The quick result is a meeting that is too large to achieve much, followedby additional meetings being scheduled for people to brief the leader onmeetings he or she was unable to attend because of schedule conflicts. This isa fundamental failure on the part of such a leader; they aren’t understandingthat their style and approach isn’t the same as everyone else’s, and their teammembers might be more effective working in a different way.

这样最直接的一个结果就是会议太大(范围)而无法有所成就。此外,对于领导者由于时间冲突而无法参加的会议,被委托参加会议的同事还要在会后向领导汇报那个会议的主要内容。这其实是一个领导者的根本失败。他根本没有理解,他的风格和方法,与团队中的其他人是不同的,其团队中的成员本可以用一种更有效率的方式来工作。

In other cases, the entire organization may have that culture—and it isautomatically assumed everyone will be invited to every meeting. Often in thatenvironment, it is expected that people will self-select which meetings theyneed to attend and ignore the rest. At best, that creates confusion and inconsistency.Unless meeting invites clearly communicate the meeting purpose and agenda (andwe all know how regularly that happens), the decision to attend or not becomespure guesswork.

还有一种情况就是,整个组织的文化,就是所有人都要被邀请到所有的会议。通常在这样的文化环境下,每个人都会自主选择他需要参加的会议并自觉忽略其他的会议邀请。只有在会议邀请中明确说明会议的目的、议程和需要决策的内容,而不是让受邀参加会议的人去猜测会议的内容,这样的会议才不至于处于混乱、不一致的状态。

The solution
There is a lot written on how to solve the problem of having too many meetings,but I see a major flaw with much of that writing in that it is focused on theindividual. Helping a project manager decide which meetings to attend, which tosend a proxy to, which to simply review the minutes for and which to ignore maymitigate the symptoms for the PM, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

解决方案
关于很多会议的这种讨论文章有很多,但这些文章最大的问题在于,它们只聚焦个人的因素。如帮助项目经理决定参加哪些会议,哪些会议委托别人参加,哪些会议只是查看会议纪要,哪些会议可以直接忽略。这些方法可以减轻PM的痛苦,却不能根本解决问题。

To implement a permanent solution, we have to target theorganization—either as a whole, or the individual manager who is creating theflawed culture. I like to do that with a metric that they always care about:money. When you start thinking about the cost of meetings, the numbers becomesignificant. Suppose you have eight people in a meeting that lasts onehour—that’s the equivalent of an eight-hour day for one person. Now multiplythat by the number of hour-long meetings that occur in any given day, and youstart realizing just how much money is being spent on the meetings.

为了能够从根本上解决问题,我们需要将目光聚焦在组织(而不是个人),无论是将组织作为一个整体考虑,还是考虑那个创造了错误的文化氛围的经理。我想使用他们一直关心的度量方法:成本来分析。当你开始考虑会议的成本时,数字开始变得可观起来。假设你有8个人参加了1个小时的会议,这等同于1个人工作8小时的时间,那么你能认识到花在会议上的成本有多少。

That spend is okay if the meetings are generating value greater than thecost, but that is frequently not the case. Don’t get me wrong: There areundoubtedly some meetings that are worth the investment of time and people, butthere are many more that would only add value if the people who needed to bethere were included as opposed to all the “extras.” There are likely also asignificant percentage of meetings that could never deliver value because theyshouldn’t have happened in the first place. We wouldn’t agree to double aproject budget for minimal additional benefit, yet that is what we do every daywhen we add people to meeting invites.

不可否认,如果会议产生的价值大于所花费的成本,那么这笔成本是值得的,但大多数情况并非如此。不要误会我,我相信一定存在值得花时间和人力的会议。但更多的情况是,很多会议只有邀请需要参加的人参加才能创造价值,其余参加人员只能算“列席”会议。还会有更多的会议本身就不会产生价值,因为从一开始这个会议就是没有意义的。我们既然不能同意为少量的收益而增加一倍成本预算这样的事情,可是在我们邀请无关人参加会议的时候,这样的事情却时时刻刻在发生。

Add to this the indirect costs that result from meetings. Overtime andadditional consultant hours for people who have to work longer than theirstandard time because they spend their regular day in meetings are an obviousexample. Less obvious (but potentially more significant) is the cost created bylost productivity. Whether it is caused by team members feeling demotivatedfrom the environment of constant meetings, their efficiency being impacted bystopping to attend meetings or simply exhaustion caused by the long hours,employees simply won’t be at their best in this environment. That will not onlymean work takes longer (effort and duration), it also increases the likelihoodmistakes will be made creating rework and increasing risks.

这就是会议产生的间接成本。一个明显的例子就是,由于在正常工作时间进行了很多会议,导致人员必须依靠加班来完成工作。虽不太明显(但却很重要)的结果就是,由于生产力下降造成的额外成本。他们的工作经常由于突然的会议打断,或者由于长时间参加会议的疲劳而受到影响。员工无法在这样的环境中处于最佳的工作状态。于是这将意味着,工作需要更长的时间和更大的努力来完成,同时还会增加可能犯错导致的返工风险。

When organizations or individuals are presented with these costs, they geta very different perspective on meetings. I once had a conversation with aclient about the fact meetings always started late in her organization. Herresponse was, “Yes, but only about five minutes.” When I pointed out I had beenin 30 meetings in the previous week—so she had paid me the equivalent of abouttwo-and-a-half hours consulting fees to sit around waiting for meetings tostart—the concept of “only five minutes” was looked at very differently.

当在组织或者个人面前呈现这些成本数据的时候,他们却对会议有不同的看法。有一次,我和一个客户聊起她组织中的会议经常延迟开始的事实。她的反应就是,“的确是这样,但也不过就是5分钟而已”。当我指出,我在过去的一周中参加了30个会议,因此你要多付给我相当于2.5小时的咨询费,因为我在这里一直在等待会议的开始,此时的“5分钟”则开始变得不同。

In this environment, people need to be educated on how to hold meetings.That may sound a slightly ridiculous thing to say, but providing people with astructure and training them on the decision-making process for appropriatemeetings will help to unlearn the bad behaviors. When the problem is one ofculture (as is frequently the case), we can’t simply tell PMs or team membersto skip meetings if they don’t feel they are giving or receiving value. Thatbehavior will be perceived as failing to do their job.

在这样的环境下,人们需要学会如何组织会议。这也许听起来有点可笑,但是为人们提供一个(系统的)体系以及培训他们如何在会议中进行决策的过程,会让他们抛弃会议的一些不良行为。但是当问题发生在文化身上(通常是这种情况)时,我们无法简单地告诉项目经理或者团队成员,如果无法创造价值或者得到价值,就忽略会议邀请。这样的行为会被认为他们不能胜任工作。

Instead, we have to ensure only the right meetings occur and only theright people are invited to them. Simply requiring all meetings to have adefined purpose with expected outcomes will start to provide that framework.Adding a requirement for a brief explanation to be provided for why each personis requested to attend (what they will contribute and/or what they will gain)will add a further layer of structure. A set agenda with timings will help keepthe meeting on track.

相反,我们必须保证只召开正确的会议,并且只有适当的人被邀请参加会议。要求所有的会议有一个明确的会议目标,和预期达到的效果,这样就可以形成一个系统的体系。对于每个参与人进行一个简明的解释,说明为什么他要参加这个会议(他们可以提供什么价值或者能够从会议中获得什么收获),可以将这个体系结构变得进一步充实。加上时间点明确的会议议程将保证会议能够如期进行。

That in itself isn’t enough. There needs to be guidelines put in place forthe number of attendees from a group. There likely isn’t a need for threeorganizational levels to attend the same meeting; that’s generally anindication of the most senior person being too involved in the day to day.There should also be models in place that allow for representatives of teams tobrief other members after the fact—the PM can attend information-based meetingsand update the rest of the team on the main points in the next team meeting,for example.

当然只有这些还不够。还需要有关于一个团队需要参会人数的指引。来自三个同级别团队的成员,没有必要同时参加同一个会议;这就是一个最重要的人过分参与所有的事情的迹象。应该有这样一个机制,只有团队的代表参加会议,会后向其他成员转述会议的主要内容。项目经理可以参加信息类的会议,并在与团队的下一次会议中将关键要点分享给团队成员。

I believe there should be agreed windows when meetings shouldn’t happen,whether that’s a meeting-free Friday concept or not having meetings startbefore a certain time each day. Finally, in extreme examples, meetings shouldbe subjected to a cost benefit analysis—is the cost of the meeting justified bythe benefits gained in terms of understanding, problem resolution, etc.? Thiscost benefit should be revisited regularly for recurring meetings, which tendto have declining value returns over time.

我相信会议在没有必要的时候就不要举行,无论是引入“无会议周五”的概念,还是在每天某个时间段不举行会议的约定。最后,在极端的例子里,每个会议是否决定召开,都需要进行会议的成本收益分析。从理解和问题的解决等方面,花费的会议成本是否是值得的?对于经常性的会议,这种成本收益分析是要定期重新审视的,因为随着时间的推移,获得的收益会随之下降。

Conclusions
Meetings and collaborative working are a vital part of successful work—whetherit is project based or operational. Synergy—the idea that a group workingtogether can achieve more than the same individuals working in isolation—isreal and can be the difference between success and failure.

结论
会议和合作是成功工作的重要组成部分,无论是基于项目还是运营。协同工作的理念,团队工作的效果优于孤立的个人,确实可以决定工作的成败。

However, meetings are also one of the most abused work tools in use today.In some cases, individuals can solve those problems by choosing which meetingsto attend and which to skip, but in the vast majority of situations the issueis systemic. It is created by an organizational culture of a large number ofmeetings attended by lots of people and with little structure, control orpurpose. That’s a culture that can be very difficult to break as it consumesanyone coming into that work area (including vendors or consultants who arebrought on board), and becomes the de facto approach to every new project.

然而,会议也是当今滥用最多的工具之一。在某些情况下,个人可以通过选择参加哪些会议和忽略哪些会议来解决这些问题,但在绝大多数情况下,这个问题是系统化的。它是由许多人组织的大量会议的组织文化创造的,这些会议没有系统的体系、良好的控制和明确的会议目标。这是一种非常难以改变的文化,因为它会消耗任何进入该工作环境的人员(包括当前的供应商或顾问),并成为每个新项目的事实意义上的尝试。

To solve the problem, we have to create an awareness of the real,meaningful impact of this approach to work—the drag on bottom-line financialperformance that occurs in this environment. Only then can awareness be broughtto the situation, which is likely to drive meaningful improvement. We must alsoacknowledge that in some situations, the project manager is the one creatingthis culture. If that’s you, just think about how much of your budget andschedule is being consumed in meetings—and  then consider whether the endresults justify the size of that investment. I think you already know theanswer.

为了解决这个问题,我们必须意识到这种尝试的真实意义和影响是什么,即会议在这个环境下的财务分析的表现如何。只有处于这种情景下,才能促进有意义的改进活动。而我们必须承认,在某些情况下,项目经理就是创造这种会议文化的人。如果那个人是你,你只要想想你的预算和日程有多少消耗在会议上,再分析一下会议的预期结果是否能够和你的投资相符,那么我想你应该已经知道了答案。

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