Care to scrum?
We need more scrums and less meetings. A scrum is a 5-10 minute stand-up meeting. About 80% of the meetings I’ve ever attended have included at least five people. Any meeting over three becomes a presentation while one bloviates and others wander.
It’s been a while since my last scrum. It included seven people, complete participation, no dominance, one referee, and was contained within a 10 minute package. Rather than walking away in a typical post-meeting cloud of confusion, I left the scrum feeling clear and informed. It was the best mode of collaborative communication I’ve been a part of. Again, I say more scrums, less meetings.
Related tags: meetings, productivity, work
Comments
Jeff Croft http://jeffcroft.com
Plus, it sounds dirty. And I’m in favor of any meeting of several people that sounds dirty.
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
I’m not the least bit surprised.
Andrew Kumar http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkumar
What about writing notes, meeting minutes, hashing out stuff on the whiteboard… hyperventilates… I’ve spent too much time working for the government…
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
@Andrew - That too. Who really reads meeting minutes though :)
beth http://resistmedia.net/blog/news
Scrum comes from Agile development, yes? We do this at my employer. Not all meetings are Scrum, but if it’s daily it is. Either way, it’s effective for getting out of the meeting and getting back to work.
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
@beth - Not sure, but I think it’s derived from a football term.
Stan Wilson http://stanwilson.net
Actually “scrum” is a Rugby term where members of a team bind together to face an opposing team to gain possession of the ball.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(rugby)
Beth is referring to it being apart of an agile software development method for project management. The idea is that people come together to go forward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)
I have actually participated in both kinds of “Scrums”
Nathan Borror http://www.playgroundblues.com
Thanks Stan. I was hopping someone would reference those wikipedia articles :) Just finished reading them right before you posted.
Keith LaFerriere http://visualactivity.com
In one of my previous engagements I took the chairs out of the meeting room and created a large sign reading: SCRUM ONLY.
The room could be used by anyone for a fifteen minute scrum. ONLY.
That was one of the best, and most-used rooms not only on the project, but for other teams in the building as well. I love the fact that it works.
Dan Mall http://www.danielmall.com/
At work, we scrum every morning, each spending a minute to talk about what we’re doing for the day and the week. Works wonders for project management.
Berger http://www.virb.com/bergrbergr
The Bagg don’t pay attention in scrums. :)
Jeff http://www.howardesign.com
Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable talks about this problem. It’s a quick read. He explores why meetings go so poorly and advocates for daily five-minute meetings, weekly one-hour tactical meetings, monthly two- to three-hour strategic meetings and quarterly off-sites.
His analogy is to CNN headline news, a procedural drama, a feature film and a mini-series. Most meetings try to be all-in-one solutions that go nowhere. Not fewer meetings, just better structure.
Alan H. http://www.creativecomponent.com
We have daily scrums at Angie’s List {Indianapolis} in Architecture and Dev. It’s a great way to see where we are today, and where we’re going tomorrow.
Adam Spooner http://adamjspooner.com/
We, the design team where I work, have a sync every morning … a scrum. Our syncs never last more than 5 minutes. They are to keep everyone on the same page and hand out new assignments. We only have meetings when a situation calls for it … to brainstorm a completely new tool, etc.
I love the sync/scrum approach. It doesn’t waste my time with information that I don’t need which allows me to get into flow faster everyday and get stuff done.
I highly recommend the sync … err, scrum.