Meetings

Meetings have long been thought to be necessary in most organizations, but they are used too often.  With the great tools that technology offers we can be more effective using Wikis, Microblogging, or other asynchronous methods.


Meetings have the advantage of

• Providing a set time and/or venue where items can be addressed
• Allowing synchronous communication (although this isn't always used effectively)
• Some meetings allow for collaboration which is sorely needed in most organization

I expect the list is longer and I will add to the benefits throughout the next weeks.

The downside is that it takes a lot of time and often the results don't warrant all the attention.

Downsides

• Everyone is committed for the block of the meeting and cannot do much else.  This is inconvenient at best and possibly very disruptive
• If the meeting is face to face there is often a fair amount of overhead such as travel to the meeting site, coordinating schedules, and waiting for the participants to arrive

What is it you like or hate about meetings?