In the last month, I attended fifty hours of meetings. Fifty. In the last week before I gave my notice, the week had seventeen hours of meetings.
It's not just where work goes to die, it's also a great way to drive individuals out of a company who just want to do good work. Meetings were exactly why we were missing deadlines and were forced to deliver assets that were lower quality because we didn't have the time (thanks to meetings) to do anything right. Meeting-itis is like dropping a nuclear bomb on the morale of some of your team members.
Moreover, I'm convinced the reason why projects might devolve into meeting-itis is because none of the attendees can agree on A) what is to be done B) or how to do it. In which, since no one's yet done the legwork to get all that sorted out, there should be no meetings until said A and B have been established and taken care of.
It's not just where work goes to die, it's also a great way to drive individuals out of a company who just want to do good work. Meetings were exactly why we were missing deadlines and were forced to deliver assets that were lower quality because we didn't have the time (thanks to meetings) to do anything right. Meeting-itis is like dropping a nuclear bomb on the morale of some of your team members.
Moreover, I'm convinced the reason why projects might devolve into meeting-itis is because none of the attendees can agree on A) what is to be done B) or how to do it. In which, since no one's yet done the legwork to get all that sorted out, there should be no meetings until said A and B have been established and taken care of.