Why engineers hate meetings and how to fix it

Use these tips to create meetings that engineers will love to attend!

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Intro

We all love the feeling of getting things done. Unfortunately, unproductive meetings are the exact opposite. Our energy is drained after such meetings.

I’ve been in countless meetings without a clear agenda, with too many people on the call and time has just passed without any useful outcome.

As a manager, one of my main goals is to make meetings as productive as possible. To value everyone's time and make them straight to the point.

To ensure we all know how to create such meetings, I am happy to team up with

Michał Poczwardowski

, experienced engineering manager, mentor and also a writer of

Perspectiveship

newsletter.

Michał is sharing tips on how to create meetings that engineers love attending.

Also, I had the pleasure of meeting Michał not so long ago at the Infoshare conference in Katowice, Poland. It’s awesome to meet fellow writers in person!

Let’s get straight into it, Michał over to you.

There are 3 things that frustrate engineers more than anything

1. The inability to reproduce a bug,

2. useless meetings and

3. off-by-one errors.

I’ll cover the meeting part today.

In my career, I led more than 1,500 one-on-ones and over 200 team meetings with engineers. While meetings often feel unnecessary, they are an important tool when done right.

Here's how to fix them.

Why engineers hate meetings - the bad

For managers, meetings are how we get through the day. We meet to hire people, get updates, create processes, etc.

For engineers, meetings are just an addition to their everyday coding.

However, unproductive meetings are the number one enemy of engineers:

• Their focus gets derailed.

• They need to be in a certain place at a certain time.

• They are forced to listen to something that might not be relevant to them.

Why meetings are important - the good

Engineers may hate meetings, but we are social beings. We grew as a species because we talked to each other, we planned together and worked together. A caveman working alone wouldn't have survived for long.

Time has changed, so has the way we work, but what was essential to get work done is still there. We need other people to get things done.

Meetings create a space where we can update each other and exchange ideas much faster than writing alone. They help us feel like part of the team, learn from each other, and use our combined brain power to solve problems.

As with any other aspect of our engineering culture, meetings should be a process which serves its purpose and is aligned with how engineers can be productive.

Meetings that your engineers will love attending

Following these steps will provide a good experience for engineers:

1. Make sure your meetings have a purpose or a goal

If your purpose of having a meeting is: "because the company requires it, every 2 weeks" it's not a good purpose.

Purpose can be found by asking:

• What is my goal?

• What do my team members need?

• What does the company want?

Having a purpose for meetings, even if not stated aloud but understood by the leader, helps to move things forward.

I had one-on-ones that didn’t work and weren’t addressing the purpose which in this case was to: “empower a team of architects within the company”.

We changed individual conversations to team meetings and it suited my goal, their goals and the company's goals.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo for meetings or any other processes that don’t work.

2. Finish the meeting early if its purpose has been fulfilled

Imagine that all your software runs for exactly one hour each time, regardless of how much time it takes to actually solve the problem.

It shouldn’t work like this, so why is finishing a meeting before the end of its scheduled time such a rare thing?

Leading a meeting isn’t that different from running efficient software → make sure it ends as soon as the goal has been reached.

You’ll be recognized as somebody who values everyone’s time.

3. Ask your engineers about their most productive time and avoid scheduling meetings here

Understand how your team works, what is their schedule, and when they are most productive.

Then, try to organise meetings with your teams in a way that respects their focus time. For engineers there is a huge distraction cost if their focus gets derailed.

4. Fill the time with updates that are relevant to them

The truth is, how much you talk is not a measurement of productivity. Simply sitting in a meeting does not make it useful.

A manager can perceive it as a great use of time, but it might be completely useless for the team members.

Don’t assume you know what is interesting to your team. Detailed financial statements that you look at every day might be interesting to you, but they probably won’t motivate your engineers to work harder.

Ask what they want to know, and if it would be useful.

5. Invite only the necessary people to the meeting

It’s OK to omit some people and focus only on the people you need. The rest of the team can read an update after the meeting.

It’s also OK not to gather the whole team if you only need to fix something with the help of a few engineers. The others won’t feel excluded.

Exclude people when needed, it’s on you to pick the right set of people for a meeting.

6. Tailor the meeting to the people attending

People are different. We have different styles of communication and an initial set of expectations.

Don’t strictly follow guidelines on what questions to ask in one-on-ones. Instead, think about what questions will best serve the purpose of these meetings.

I worked with people who took full ownership of presenting their updates and knew exactly when to ask for guidance, but I also worked with juniors who just followed the templates for the agenda that I prepared.

I've never published anything like my own manager's readme on how to talk with me. I assumed it would kill the ability to try new ways of cooperating. Instead, I aimed to talk through expectations during our first meetings.

Have an open conversation about the shape of one-on-one meetings with your team members. Allow them to adjust it as needed to suit the purpose, even if it doesn’t align with your preferences. Manage expectations.

7. Pay attention to people while in the meeting with them

Some companies operate without any meetings at all. This is rare.

While talking to someone in a meeting, in the office or even during a video call, we gather much more data as managers. We hear the tone of their voice and we can see if someone is stressed, overwhelmed, or nervous.

For managers, getting more data about our team members is important to better understand them, and get a closer look at how they are feeling.

Summary

We want to be perceived as managers who empower engineers, take care of them, and deliver results for the company.

In order to do this, be sure to apply the following to your meetings:

• Make sure your meetings have a purpose or a goal

• Finish the meeting early if its purpose has been fulfilled.

• Ask your engineers about their most productive time and avoid scheduling meetings here.

• Fill the time with updates that are relevant to them.

• Invite only the necessary people to the meeting.

• Tailor the meeting to the people attending.

• Pay attention to people while in the meeting with them

Last words

Special thanks to Michał for sharing his insights on this important topic! Make sure to follow him on LinkedIn and check out his newsletter

Perspectiveship

.

You can also book him as a mentor here. I definitely recommend to do that if you are looking for a great mentor to help you level up in your career or get some expert advice.

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