I recently came across this amazing post on 99U, talking about the best practises that big tech giants like Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk use, to make their meetings productive.
Here are some of the best quotes from the article, and I encourage you to read the original article at 99U:
Steve Jobs:
Jobs had a disdain for meetings that had too many people. He wanted people to be working, not passively sitting in a boardroom. If people didn’t have a lot to contribute, they’re better off spending time somewhere else.
Marissa Mayer:
While at Google, Mayer averaged 70 meetings per week. How did she manage all these meetings while still getting her own work done?
Mayer uses the micro-meeting: she allows people to book meetings as short as 10 minutes. Just because your calendar program defaults a meeting to 30 minutes, that doesn’t mean you need 30 minutes. An uninterrupted 30-minute block in her calendar is rare, so if you really need to speak to Mayer about something, make it quick.
Elon Musk:
Musk addressed his overworked, demoralized and disappointed team in a meeting, then immediately got them to work even harder to deliver a nearly flawless launch less than two months later. How did he do it? In that pivotal meeting, he simply reiterated SpaceX’s goal: to launch a rocket into orbit. He emphatically promised them victory, saying “for my part, I will never give up, and I mean never.” Within hours, the team started working on the solution.