February 10, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Grant Fritchey (2/10/2012)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (2/10/2012)
Worth the read: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawandeAbsolutely. I enjoyed that one a lot.
BTW, since you guys have no doubt stopped laughing over my applying to the mentor program, this is what I was looking for.
No worries, we haven't stopped laughing...:-P:hehe:
wish I had one...
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February 10, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Thx for all the advice. Yes, they have plans for me to go higher up in the management. I have been asked to manage all Development teams and projects. It is challenging.
I have to figure out a way to keep the meetings short and effective. That is the biggest challenge. One thing is I am still in charge of bringing in new technologies for SQL Server.
-Roy
February 10, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Roy Ernest (2/10/2012)
Thx for all the advice. Yes, they have plans for me to go higher up in the management. I have been asked to manage all Development teams and projects. It is challenging.I have to figure out a way to keep the meetings short and effective. That is the biggest challenge. One thing is I am still in charge of bringing in new technologies for SQL Server.
It takes practice and getting your team to 'unlearn' the meeting philosphy, which is bring your kitchen sink with you. You CAN have 10 minute meetings. The trick is to make sure everyone's on the ball on entry, nail down what needs to be done as a group, and move on.
That and make sure you're not managed by committee.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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February 10, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Make your meetings stand up meetings. No one sits. You will see how quickly people want to get through the meeting.
February 10, 2012 at 1:39 pm
We have stand up meetings.. But some of them are architectural and design meetings. Business impact meetings. Those usually take time. My goal is to keep it within 45 minutes
-Roy
February 10, 2012 at 1:41 pm
My trick for having everybody on time and keeping meetings short: the first point on the agenda is assignment of unpleasant tasks. Who is not there gets them. That done, the rest of the meeting is usually short.
February 10, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Roy
Thx for all the advice. Yes, they have plans for me to go higher up in the management. I have been asked to manage all Development teams and projects. It is challenging.
I have to figure out a way to keep the meetings short and effective. That is the biggest challenge. One thing is I am still in charge of bringing in new technologies for SQL Server.
Roy I once had a manager who created a brief outline of what each meeting was to cover ( a max of 10 subjects) and the duration of the meeting, which was 10 minutes per invited attendee at max, if the subjects to be covered were a few the meeting duration was reduced to 5 minutes per attendee. Now all it took on my managers part was to keep things moving along. He bought a time along (something like your wife might use during cooking) set it for the meeting duration and when the timer started beeping .. that was it meeting adjourned. It took just 2 such meetings for all involved to realize their parts in meeting the time interval, and as an attendee along with others actually began to enjoy going to his meetings. Now that may work for the meetings you call, but not the ones you are required to attend. To assist there, invite the head(s) of the meetings you must attend (one at a time) to one of your meetings. Let them see how you do things and who knows they may copy your technique and viola you will wind up spending more time doing what you want to do, and be congratulated on being innovative.
February 10, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Interesting ideas. 🙂 I will try the timer method. I like that one. 🙂
-Roy
February 10, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Roy
One item I failed to mention, the outline/subject matter for the meeting was distributed by my manager the day before the scheduled meeting
Another "trick" my manager used. Had coffee/tea/donuts/pastry on the table starting 10 minutes before the meeting, free for all attendees, at start time his secretary came in carted the freebies out. Did certainly encourage the attendess to be early.
February 10, 2012 at 2:30 pm
February 10, 2012 at 2:42 pm
One thing not to do...
Tuesday morning: 2 hour 'strategy' meeting with developers (actually a glorified progress and task allocation meeting)
Thursday afternoon: 4 hour departmental progress meeting (including dev team)
Yes, that was a weekly thing at ex-client. Most people took laptops and carried on with their work during the meeting
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
February 10, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Chad Crawford (2/10/2012)
Lynn Pettis (2/10/2012)
Make your meetings stand up meetings. No one sits. You will see how quickly people want to get through the meeting.
Thats a good one. 🙂
Ron, the idea of free donuts wont work but our company always keeps snacks and Cold drinks for free for all employees. 🙁
-Roy
February 10, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Gail, That is horrible. I will never be able to do that kind of meeting. After an hr to the max, I would walk out. My mind will become blank if I sit in a meeting more than an hr.
-Roy
February 10, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Roy,
Kevin Kline has some excellent blog posts/presentations about meetings that you should check out. I think he did one for the first 24hop that was great and was recorded so you might still be able to get it from PASS somehow.
A few of key things I've picked up:
1. Have an agenda and distribute it the day before so people can be prepared. Ron mentioned he had a manager that did that. Of course you have to stick to the agenda, but that's your job as the meeting organizer.
2. Only have the people in the meeting that absolutely need to be there. If they only need to be there for part of the meeting let them go.
3. Have action items that come from the meeting. If I go to meeting I want to have something to do from the meeting. If not I probably wasn't needed.
4. Follow up with an email summarizing the meeting and assignments after the meeting. Don't assume that people took notes or wrote down their assignments. They were probably doodling or doing a puzzle.:-D
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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February 10, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Thanks Jack for the excellent advice. The next two week is going to be challenging. My CTO is off the island. So everything has to be taken care off. I am hoping that things will go smoothly.
-Roy
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