Would an email have been enough?
Did you spend the whole day in video calls too? And the feeling that that could have been summed up in one email? How teams find the right balance in communication.
April 6th, 2021, 5:05 amReading time: 3 minutes
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Endless video calls get on many people’s nerves. Meetings should therefore always be limited.
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa / dpa-tmn
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Berlin (dpa / tmn). Eight video calls a day on average: Those who have to be reachable for work have recently started Zoom and Co. quite often. At least that was the result of a survey carried out by Bitkom Research in January 2021.
Teresa Hertwig is an author, management consultant and mobile working expert.
Photo: Kimberly Jobson / dpa-tmn
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So it is not surprising that most of them are now quite annoyed by the endless video meetings. Couldn’t the last three hours have been summarized in a short email? In a topic service interview, home office expert Teresa Hertwig explains what meetings really need – and how you can prevent them from getting out of hand.
One thing is certain: You can hardly avoid e-mails or video calls entirely – especially if many are working at home during the ongoing pandemic. “There is simply the big point: We need what feels like a balance in communication. Because we can’t see each other, the flood of meetings and emails goes up, ”says Hertwig.
“I have no place in this meeting”
Often, however, the problem is that the video meetings are not limited, according to the management consultant. And that with a view to the number of participants as well as the length of the meeting. Therefore, according to Hertwig, it is important to ask the question: Does everyone really have to be there? “The manager should also proactively call on employees to communicate openly and, if necessary, to say:” I have no place in this meeting. “”
Limiting the time of the meeting is then also a joint task of the manager and the team. “Before each meeting, you should define what the desired result is,” says the management consultant. A clear agenda is helpful here: “There is a time corridor at every point on the agenda,” she explains. “And then you determine, for example: We discuss each point for 15 minutes, then we stop, regardless of whether we are finished or not.”
In the end, this is how the team educates itself. “But you need a timekeeper for that. And a moderator, who ensures that the introverts also have their say and that the sprawling speakers are slowed down. ”The timekeeper is allowed to step in and should announce right at the beginning of each meeting: Anyone who speaks too long will be interrupted. “Then you learn as a collective to get to the point faster.”
Emails are not enough for mobile work
Hertwig believes that an email is no better idea than a well-structured meeting. “Everyone is saturated with e-mails. My clear recommendation: E-mails are not a sufficient means of communication for mobile work. “
E-mails are particularly unsuitable for internal communication and, according to the expert, should only be used for correspondence with contacts outside of your own organization. Everything else comes as a task in a project management tool or is communicated in an internal collaboration tool.
Only then is transparency about the capacities and status of all tasks, as well as real-time communication, possible. “We shouldn’t be writing more emails in favor of fewer meetings.”
If there really is something to discuss, then a “crisp stand-up meeting” is often the most effective – that is, a meeting that is kept as short as possible. Longer meetings with the entire team, for example, should take place once a week, depending on requirements.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210330-99-31824 / 2
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