Determining When Meetings Should be Just an Email
At the height of the pandemic, most companies decided to shift to a work from home strategy. It might seem like a more convenient option, but it’s not. Some leaders have decided to conduct more meetings through online platforms like Zoom. Even when employees started coming back to work, meetings are still prevalent. It doesn’t necessarily mean that conducting meetings with employees is a bad thing. However, as the popular meme says “some meetings should be just an email.” As a team leader, here are the signs telling you that you should send an email to the people involved instead of calling for another meeting.
You only need a few answers
If you’re calling for a meeting to get some responses, there’s no point. You will only spend a few minutes before letting everyone go. However, it takes over an hour from the time that you gather the people involved until you finish the process. Within that time frame, these employees could have been more productive. You may include the word urgent on the subject line if you need immediate responses.
You need feedback
When you’ve assigned one or two people to do something and you wish to know their feedback, a meeting would be unnecessary. You can ask these people to come see you or you visit their office. You will have a more meaningful conversation in a more intimate setting as opposed to a meeting involving dozens of people.
You need to disseminate information
There are many ways to send information to all employees these days. Apart from emails, you may also use other messaging platforms. You can even get a response to the group chat or a private reply. Unless you have to provide detailed information for an upcoming activity or project, there’s no need to call for a meeting.
You are yet to reach the due date
During your previous meeting, you’ve assigned tasks and told the employees that you need updates at a certain date. Allow them to finish their tasks on the given time and not call for a meeting until then. Otherwise, you won’t get a complete picture. You’re also wasting these people’s time. Instead of working on the task, they have to halt what they’re doing to attend the meeting.
You only want to get ideas
There’s nothing wrong with brainstorming during a meeting. There’s no specific agenda. You only want to hear people talk to see which ideas stick. While it’s a good thing, you also don’t want to call everyone for a meeting. Send a message to everyone involved and ask for a response. You can organize a meeting later when you have received more ideas.
You might feel good about the idea of meeting everyone in your team, but you don’t want to prevent productivity. You also don’t want your employees to hate the idea of meetings. Be strategic in organizing one and ensure it’s not a waste of time.
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