Extended Cut of my Alibis for Interaction 2016 masterclass on "hacking the meeting"

1. un-boring
meetings
Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets)
Alibis for Interaction
November 11, 2016
c b

2. chapter 1
Introduction

3. are meetings
boring?

4. big, long, informational department meetings
booooooo-ring (in case you wondered)

5. constant, small in-team ‘meetings’ during production
not boring at all

6. when
are meetings
boring?

7. Meetings are boring when
we don’t give or receive
something we find relevant.
observation

8. so how do we cut
straight to the
relevant bits?

9. we can’t.
teaser

10. the problem is not
how we do meetings.
it’s that we do them.
teaser

11. “Always design a thing by considering it in
its next larger context – a chair in a room,
a room in a house, a house in an
environment, an environment in a city plan.”
eliel saarinen

12. there are organisational
contexts that make
meetings both (1)
unavoidably boring and (2)
unavoidable.
teaser

13. how do we redesign
organisational contexts to
avoid doing (unavoidably
boring) meetings?
the real question

14. but first, some hygiene

15. meeting design does matter*
* Links at the end

16. meetings≈games: goals+rules+players+material define possible results

17. most meeting literature reiterates the same basic rules with the same
clear goals
One defined purpose that only a
meeting can achieve
clear rules
The right and tight agenda with time
boxes, participants, roles, activities
clear feedback
Ongoing visual documentation, record-
keeping of decisions, actions, insights
sportspersonship
Commitment and mutual care
basic meeting result in mind

18. chapter 2
Shared ground, or:
Why meetings
must be boring

19. 1. To share & deliberate information & concerns
2. To deliberate, make & share decisions
why do we meet?
3. To solve problems
4. To nurture social relations
• getting to know each other
• being seen
• catching up
• …
Officially recognised
Workshops are better formats
Often an inofficial agenda,
though meetings are poor
tools to achieve it

20. All I know All you know
What’s relevant

21. What I know
is relevant

22. What you know
is relevant

23. What we know
is relevant

24. extending shared ground

25. ?
but what if we don’t know what we already know?

26. ?
i’ll tell you stuff i didn’t know you know or find irrelevant

27. ?
you’ll tell me stuff you didn’t know i know or find irrelevant

28. ?
and if we both come with colleagues who share ground with us …

29. “Some of you will already be
familiar with this, but …”
“This may not be relevant to
everyone here, but …”
common give-aways

30. what matters is mutually known shared ground
!

31. game jam: small, co-located project team
Continuous incidental info-sharing
Continuous shared decision-making
Many quick, focused 1-on-1
conversations
Large known shared ground
!

32. uni: big, dispersed, differentiated org
Infrequent cross-group info-sharing
Unclear cross-group decision-making
Few, long, oversharing many-
to-many meetings
?Small/unknown shared ground

33. The larger, more dispersed, and functionally
differentiated the host organisation, …
the less frequent incidental information-sharing, …
the more unclear decision-making authority, …
the more participants at the meeting (3+), …
… the more meeting participants are
structurally predisposed to say and
hear things they find irrelevant.
… the smaller the known shared ground,

34. chapter 3
Accountability, or:
Why we still meet

35. if shared ground was all …
… we could do it by e-mail
… or wiki
… and we all just read
or skip as needed.*
* a.k.a. “knowledge management”

36. and then …

37. “Sorry, I didn’t see that e-mail,
maybe it landed in my spam folder/
you know my inbox/…”

38. accountability in real life: legal serving

39. accountability in real life: witnesses and signatures

40. accountability in digital life: read receipt

41. to act, we need accountable shared ground
mutual presence
I know You knowthat
You know
that
I know that
etc.

42. “Well you can’t say
you didn’t know.”
“You were at the meeting.
You had the chance to say
something then.”
common give-aways

43. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with
little known shared ground and …
2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need
accountable information and decision-sharing.
3. Ergo, despair?
what we learned so far

44. chapter 4
Advanced meeting
avoidance

45. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with
little known shared ground and …
2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need
accountable information and decision-sharing.
3. Ergo, despair?
hack #1: increase known shared ground

46. hack #1: increase known shared ground
social streams
colocation
delegation to teams

47. 1. Meetings are unavoidably boring in groups with
little known shared ground and …
2. we can’t ditch meetings because we need
accountable information and decision-sharing.
3. Ergo, despair?
hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices

48. hack #2: institute alternative accountable sharing practices
purpose
Social streams,
newsletters, …
nice-to-know
information
accountable
information
Read receipt
black boards
simple
decision
Doodle.com
informed
decision
Silent briefing
problem
solving
nurturing
social ties
Workshop Alibis 2017 :)
???

49. chapter 5
Summary

50. good meeting rules make meetings more productive and less boring …

51. ?
but with unknown shared ground, we’re bound to bore each other.

52. and in big, disperse, differentiated
organisations, and in groups of
3+, unknown shared ground is
unavoidable.
?

53. we stick to meetings because they are our default for producing
accountability in organisations

54. so: meet less (boringly) by establishing more known shared ground …
social streams
colocation
delegation to teams

55. … and institute alternative ways of achieving accountability …
purpose
Social streams,
newsletters, …
nice-to-know
information
accountable
information
Read receipt
black boards
simple
decision
Doodle.com
informed
decision
Silent briefing
problem
solving
nurturing
social ties
Workshop Alibis 2017 :)
???
(or other purposes you care about).

56. sebastian@codingconduct.cc
@dingstweets
codingconduct.cc
thank you.