Thinking or Doing?

I cannot stand the phrase “let’s have a meeting to discuss that.” All my ears hear is “let’s do something inefficient that ultimately will let us go in circles while wasting time.”

Now this is not to say that thinking through something is a detriment, quite the opposite in fact. The word ‘meeting’ has a connotation of “closed”. Let’s try and figure out between our small group what the right solution is. Well, this situation is only appropriate when the question at hand — the subject of the meeting — is constrained to your group and your group alone. Example topics that fall in this category would include: what productivity measures to use as a company, whether to consider deals, or what to do for a company outing. However, meetings that address an audience outside of your group — i.e. debates where each of you will simply be presenting your assumptions based on anecdotal evidence — need to stop. Go get the evidence. Don’t base it off your assumptions and go outside and talk to people.

When time is your most valuable asset, these meetings can quite literally kill your company. Don’t try to guess the market, or guess what your user is thinking. Just ask.