More Productive Meetings
For this week’s assignment I had to suggest a new technology to make an old task more productive. I chose meeting scheduling.
The Problem
Meetings are usually the worst part of someone’s work day. There was a funny joke that meetings were torture, but zoom meetings while at the office were next level cruelty. For a volunteer organization where there is a need for face-to-face time, planning a meeting is critical. The problem is that working professionals have other obligations and finding time is a challenging task. Previously, you either had to have a meeting to schedule the next year’s meeting or you had to call/email and juggle of matrix of responses. None of these worked well.
Planning meetings a year in advance allowed your meeting to be first; however, these meetings were low priority for the volunteers. As reminders were put out, those who had other plans would drop off, reducing the effectiveness of the meeting (Leuzinger & Brannon, 2021)
The Better Way
The better way is to use a meeting polling service to propose meeting times and let everyone choose their availability. Instead of choosing one date, a person could prioritize with a yes/no/if no choice. This allows many more options, which in turn allows more people to be available. Given this data, a possible second meeting if needed could follow (Shellenbarger & Chicca, 2020). This chnage that we did saw significant more participation, with more people showing up on time, and doing more of their homework.
Final Thoughts
Do not be afraid to try different things. Not always will technology win out, but I have learned that if you have a problem, someone else already does. If they do not, there maybe some money in solving it.
References
Shellenbarger, T., & Chicca, J. (2020). More meaningful meetings. American Nurse Journal, 15(4), 10.
Haim Cohen
CS Teacher, Podcaster, Organizer of Cryptovillage, and Chairman of Highland Park NJ Public Information Committee.