Work-life saving skills

Is your calendar full of meetings? Are you very busy at work? Do your employees fall under these categories? Then, this article is for you.

Most companies have induction trainings for their fresh, new employees. These sessions usually cover the team and tools so that you can find your way easier in the company. But is this really what sets new employees to speed? How much value do these induction meetings, in this format, actually bring?

Anyway, you attend these wonderful inductions, all full of "new beginnings' positive energy". And then you start working. And you get to know more and more people in the company. The higher the number of years in the company, the higher the number of people you get in contact with. So now - after X year, you have an inside network. Built both in your country and abroad. And you are known for your strong skills. And you receive more and more requests for a short talk, or a short "sync".

Does this sound familiar: "Do you have 2 minutes?"?

How about a calendar invitation with "Short talk to sync on topic Y." And it is an invitation for 1h. One hour. For a short sync. I wonder how would a long sync look like..

One after the other, you shortly have you calendar full. Next step is: parallel meetings. Two or three at the same time. Peak for me was a day with constant overlap between two meetings and for an interval of two hours I had four parallel meetings. Then I wondered:

Possible strategies:

• reject meeting if you already have the time slot booked. This means extra time for you to check (some calendars show you upfront if you are busy or not at the time). Possible issues: What if meeting is with highly importance? What if it is from 3 management layers above you = so you know something is suddenly burning?
• reject meeting if it contains no details
• reject meeting if you are invited optional
• reject meeting if it is the only time slot left free from the day
• reject meeting with no reason if you are already overbooked with work

Summary: Reject the meeting.

The problem is - you cannot just reject all of them, as you know some of them are important. So you need to filter them. But this is not simple filtering, it is an exhausting filtering and joggling with multiple balls while paying attention not to break any.

What if Induction trainings would include:

How to communicate efficient. On chat, in emails, in video conferences

DON'T: Write stories instead of short messages (isolated exceptions allowed). There are statistics on how fast people loose interest. VERY fast.

DO: Get to the core of the problem fast. People are busy during work hours. At least the productive employees.

Wisely separation of "work-talk" from "pleasure-talk"

DON'T: Mix small talk with work burning topics. This easily leads to being unproductive.

DO: Mix them if you know all parties implied in the discussion have a lot of spare time. You included.

Meeting versus Email

DON'T: Set a meeting for something that can be an email.

DO: Send an email instead.

Email versus Chat

DON'T: Send an email for something that can be a chat message.

DO: Sent a chat message instead.

Chat versus Central documentation

DON'T: Chat important, reusable information.

DO: Document them central accessible, pin the location visible to all interested in the information.

One hour meeting Killer

DON'T: Send standard invitation for 1h for all meetings.

DO: Get rid of "1h meeting" habit. If you know you need to talk 9 minutes, send a 10 minutes invitation. Not an 1h "to be sure you have time". It is in your professional responsibility to estimate and anticipate the need! Hiding behind "1h" only makes you lazy, not professional that has a meeting set.

How familiar is below story to you?

Spoiler: Some of you might ask: Why answering? And you're right ;)

A: Hi, B!
B: Hi
A: How are you?
B: Fine, thank you, how are you?
A: Fine also, thank you.
..pause..
A: So, how is the weather like on your side?
B: (accuweather is available for everyone) Sunny, warm, spring is finally here. How does it look locally on your side?
A: Not that warm, cloudy a bit and it was raining earlier.
B: Oh, sorry to hear that.
A: If you have 2 minutes, I was wondering if you could help me with something.
B: Busy day, but what do you need?
A: <finally getting to the point>

What is the added value of such discussion? Let me tell you: None. Some might consider such discussion consolidates relationship. And sometimes it might, but that sometimes happens when both A and B can afford the time for such small talk. Following above pattern with busy employees might lead to actually not getting the meaningful answers back. You loose energy and time. If you really are interested in a person, ask them how they are doing outside of a work request. Schedule, in agreement with them, a dedicated coffee time, be it live or remote, online.

When it comes to important work with your regular colleagues - get to the point.

Above list of possible improvements is not exhaustive, nor perfect. However, if induction training would include a list of golden rules to be used, as those from above, companies productivity would increase, frustration would decrease.

Yes, we are different and yes, we have different needs for attention, communication time and styles. However, being more efficient will boost positive energy for everyone and will "buy" time for more of what each likes. Be it: small talk, passions or other things.

I wrote this article with the hope of having "Efficiency at work" Chapter in Induction trainings as a standard.