Why you should cancel this meeting!

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  An average manager spend 23 hours a week in meetings

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  and 71% of those have been classified classified as totally

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  unnecessary. So how do we make sure that meetings are

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  really used for what they are intended to be used

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  for precious team time.

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  My name is Jonah Pyszka and I'm a coach remote

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  and hyper working teams.

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  And in this presentation I'm going to show you which

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  meetings to keep and which meetings to drop and especially

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  how asynchronous communication can help you to replace certain meetings.

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  So what are the reasons to meet up meetings are

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  for teams?

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  As earlier said meetings are precious team tongue where you

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  come together, where you get to know one another better,

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  where you have fun.

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  So important meetings, you should definitely keep our any type

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  of team building meetings whenever it is important for you

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  to react to interact with one another.

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  This is only this can best be done in a

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  meeting. So team building meetings are so important for your

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  team other meetings, which are important.

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  Our kickoff meetings because kickoff meetings lay down the base

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  rules for a project.

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  They are like share, creating a common ground for your

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  team, how they want to work together.

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  What are the objectives of the, of the time and

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  they kind of help you with the motivation.

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  So kick off meetings are so important to to Yeah,

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  to determine what is the project about, how you want

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  to work together and how it should be.

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  So it gives like the right frame for project to

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  have a proper meeting right at the beginning of a

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  project and then at the end to mark the end

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  of the project.

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  And evaluation of retrospective meeting is so important.

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  So that you can invite your team to go up

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  to a meter level to evaluate what things worked pretty

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  well and what has to be improved next time there

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  it is so important in those meetings to react to

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  directions to one another, You're interacting with one another.

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  You want to have more than older than pure technical

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  information on the issues you want to see.

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  The reactions may be in the face is maybe in

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  the appearances.

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  All those things are super important and cannot be done

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  through other communication channels rather than a video call or

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  in person meeting where you can see how the person

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  is reacting, what what you're saying, how how the person

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  interacting with one another in the group.

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  And so these are meetings where you should definitely come

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  together. Another reason why you should hold a meeting is

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  if you have a pretty time sensitive issue and you

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  cannot wait for each team member to give the response

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  response through a different channel.

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  Of course a meeting can have the objective to have

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  an out output at a certain time.

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  So, um, let's say you have a 30 minutes meeting,

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  you want to see what you want to determine what

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  you're going to work on the next time.

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  You have a time frame, your time boxing there and

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  the team is coming together.

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  I think in such a short period as synchronous communication

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  cannot help you there.

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  So a quick call in so that everybody can connect

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  is a great help if you have time sensitive issues

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  on discussions and brain stomachs, especially if not all perspectives

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  of all team members are needed and you can just

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  connect with with everybody who is just present right now.

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  So do to decide if a meeting is necessary or

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  not, you should use the CCT rule.

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  So whenever creativity, collaboration or team building reasons for you

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  to meet up, this is definitely a good reason to

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  meet up.

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  But what our meetings, which you shouldn't attend, which meetings

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  you should definitely cancel meetings which are wasting your time.

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  Don't waste your time.

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  And meetings you have too much to do for that

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  cancelled meetings, which are purely about reporting status updates, announcements

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  or one woman or one man show whenever it is

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  about one person speaking and the others listening, there are

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  better ways now to do that.

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  We can record those sessions, we can use other communication

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  channels. We don't have to connect life to, to listen

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  to a person.

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  This can be done on your own schedule in your

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  own time, whenever it fits your best and all reporting

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  meetings, status updates, those meetings there, we know a lot

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  of other tenants which are more helpful to transfer pure

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  information. Those things don't have to be and don't have

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  to be done in a meeting.

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  There are other ways you can communicate them.

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  The same is applies for announcements.

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  So whenever, uh, there's no need for you to see

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  the reactions of people to interact with one another to

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  react to what other people are saying immediately and then

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  there is no need for you to meet up.

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  You can replace those meetings through a synchronous communication.

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  Of course you're going to be invited to some meetings

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  where you feel like maybe I'm not really sure if

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  I have to come or not.

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  There are two indicators would help you if you should

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  ask if you should come or not.

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  If you're not really sure if you really needed in

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  this meeting or not.

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  This is a good reason for you to ask if

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  you should come or not because if you're not in

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  the target group of this meeting, maybe you should rather

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  use your time for more important or more pending issues

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  or if you are invited to a meeting with no

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  objective or no agenda.

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  It is very hard for you to decide if you

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  really have to be there or not.

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  So maybe you should ask their if they can send

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  you the objectives or the agenda of the meeting or

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  explain to you why it should be important to go

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  through this meeting because meetings should be done should be

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  used and in the most efficient way because we have

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  to we have to enjoy as a team there together

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  meetings have to be fun and shouldn't be like a

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  hard burden on us.

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  So a synchronous communication is a good way to replace

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  meetings. But how can we make a synchronous communication work?

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  So there are three mass dues for you.

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  If you want to use asynchronous communication in your organization,

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  number one is whenever you communicate something as synchronously, you

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  have to make sure that it is clearly understandable and

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  you have a complete documentation of what you are sharing

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  their so that no question have to be asked to

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  understand it better.

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  It has to be fully understandable with all the information

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  attached. You want to share.

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  Number two communication guidelines there.

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  This important um for us and organization to develop those

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  communication guidelines so that your members know what to communicate

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  through which channel and how far as they have to

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  reply on what channel.

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  If you're already working on your communication guidelines, this is

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  also a great moment to determine what meetings you should

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  drop and watch meetings you should keep.

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  And then number three respect working hours of your teammates.

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  If you're working through different time zones.

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  It is so important that you respect working hours regarding

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  the the answers you're expecting.

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  If people are sleeping, if you're off office, you can't

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  respect, you can't expect an answer there.

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  So keep that in mind the working hours of your

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  members so that you that there is no misunderstanding through

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  this communication.

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  As you may know, there are various tools out there

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  in this world who can help you in your ass

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  increase as synchronous communication.

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  We have slack, we have metamorphosed, we have rocket chat

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  or we have Microsoft teams and many, many others who

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  can just support you in your asynchronous communication and keep

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  it organized.

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  So I would love to say that asking for this

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  communication is the most inclusive way of communication because it

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  allows your teammates to to answer in the right moment

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  when they are focused when they have the time to

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  really get into your question and to really give you

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  the feedback you need and to really answer what you,

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  what you're expecting.

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  And um it adapts to working hours from different team

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  members throughout the world.

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  And so it is an inclusive way for you to

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  yeah to collaborate better with your team.

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  So now if you're asking yourself I have this reason

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  I have this issue.

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  Should I meet up or shouldn't I have a short

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  checklist for you with some questions to ask before you

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  schedule your next meeting.

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  So whenever you ask yourself, shall we meet?

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  Is ask yourself have the meeting a clear objective, what

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  is the reason for your meeting or you're just feeling

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  like this is like the weekly meeting and we should

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  do it anyway.

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  Do you need the whole team for it?

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  You should rather invite only team members who are really

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  needed to meetings so that attention span is really good

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  and people are really enjoying the time in their meetings,

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  Mass people immediately react to each other.

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  Do you need to see the reaction to one another?

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  And do you want to use it like a creative

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  process that input from one team member results in an

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  idea to another, then that's definitely a good reason to

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  meet or?

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  And do you need more than just a technical feedback?

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  If it's just about sharing information, there's no meeting needed.

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  But if you would like to have a more more

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  profound feedback, for example, if you would like to see

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  the reactions of your team members or how they interact

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  with one another on the issue, then this is also

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  a very good reason to meet.

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  So whenever this, you answer all those questions with a

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  yes, then set a clear objective and invite the right

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  people to your meeting and just enjoy the time together

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  as a team.

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  I hope these tips help you to waste less time

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  in your organization with unnecessary meetings, and I hope to

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  see you in my next video.