Meetings

One of the advantages of the Headcount: 1 model is that because I charge what I like for my time I don't get invited to many meetings. At least not to many that I don't want to go to.

In a recent post Seth Godin describes meetings as functioning as a 'pressure release valve' in joint venture scenarios. This is a perfect description of how things worked when I had a business partner. Although we didn't even live in the same city we'd still both store up all our frustrations until we were alone in the meeting room and then we'd just let rip. We were even self-aware enough to recognise that the angst we each felt ahead of these meetings was making us needlessly unhappy yet for years we persisted in having them.

Years ago I read a piece about David Geffen in which he insisted that no face-to-face meeting go longer than 23 minutes*. There was an extensive rationale behind this that I remember seeing as sound if a little extreme. Nowadays I couldn't agree more. 23 minutes is about right for any meeting other than scriptwriting**.

* Can anyone can refer me to this? I can't track it down anywhere

** Training sessions, marketing workshops and rehearsals aren't 'meetings' per se. They have a specific purpose and should be run by a single trainer, facilitator or theatrical director