

Hold Conversations, Not Meetings - wallflower
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/hold_conversations_not_meeting.html

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jdp23
There's some very good advice here -- keep it informal, involve new people,
try different seating arrangements and organizations -- but this quote really
bothered me:

"If you're anything like this executive, you'd probably be glad to skip most
of the meetings you're called to."

Not me. Most of the meetings I go to are extremely good uses of my time.
Conversely if I don't think the meeting will be a good use of time, I usually
find a way to avoid it (or multi-task during it).

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T_S_
I sympathize, but if too many people are doing too much multitasking it would
be a good idea to have the interested parties continue alone. Sometimes I see
people claiming their seat at the table without contributing as a new mode of
passive-aggressive behavior.

~~~
jdp23
It depends on the circumstances. Often a meeting will have multiple topics,
and different people can be more or less engaged at different times. And often
it's useful to have somebody around to answer questions if anybody comes up,
but she or he isn't needed for most stuff being covered. In both of these
cases multi-tasking can be very efficient. Of course as you say it can also be
abused ...

