How to Run a Meeting Like Google

No one wastes time searching for a purpose at Marissa Mayer's meetings—even five-minute gatherings must have a clear agenda

Meetings get a bad rap in business today and for good reason—very little gets accomplished in them. I can recall a Dilbert cartoon in which several people sat around a table while the meeting organizer said, "There is no specific agenda for this meeting. As usual, we'll just make unrelated emotional statements about things which bother us…"

That pretty much sums it up. The majority of meetings are unstructured, uninspiring, and unproductive. But they don't have to be that way.

When I decided to write a column about running effective meetings, I turned to a leader who holds more than anyone I know and who actually credits her meeting structure for leading to some of the most innovative advances in technology today: Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of search products (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/19/06, "Marissa Mayer: The Talent Scout").

Mayer holds an average of 70 meetings a week and serves as the last stop before engineers and project managers get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to Google's co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Eight teams consisting of directors, managers, and engineers—all at various stages of product development—answer to Mayer.

In a shop like Google (GOOG), much of the work takes place in meetings, and her goal is to make sure teams have a firm mandate, strategic direction, and actionable information, while making participants feel motivated and respected. Mayer's six keys to running successful meetings follow:

1. Set a firm agenda.
Mayer requests a meeting agenda ahead of time that outlines what the participants want to discuss and the best way of using the allotted time. Agendas need to have flexibility, of course, but Mayer finds that agendas act as tools that force individuals to think about what they want to accomplish in meetings. It helps all those involved to focus on what they are really trying to achieve and how best to reach that goal.

2. Assign a note-taker.
A Google meeting features a lot of displays. On one wall, a projector displays the presentation, while right next to it, another projector shows the transcription of the meeting. (Yet another displays a 4-foot image of a ticking stopwatch.) Google executives are big believers in capturing an official set of notes, so inaccuracies and inconsistencies can be caught immediately.

Those who missed the meetings receive a copy of the notes. When people are trying to remember what decisions were made, in what direction the team is going, and what actions need to be taken, they can simply review the notes.

3. Carve out micro-meetings.
Mayer sets aside large blocks of time that she slices into smaller, self-contained gatherings on a particular subject or project. For example, during her weekly two-hour confab with the co-founders and CEO Eric Schmidt, she sets aside five- to 10-minute segments—or longer, depending on the subject—devoted to such specific areas as weekly reports on how the site is performing, new product launches, etc.

This method offers enough flexibility to modify the agenda just before the meeting, should anything pressing occur. It also instills discipline that keeps the meeting tightly focused. Mayer does the same with members of her teams who might need only five or 10 minutes of her time instead of 30 minutes—the shortest block of time her calendar permits. By setting aside micro-meetings within a larger block of time, she accomplishes more.

Mayer, who has a background in engineering and computer science, jokingly refers to micro-meetings as "reducing latency in the pipeline." That means if she has an employee with an issue that comes up Tuesday, he or she can schedule a 10-minute micro-meeting during Mayer's large time block, instead of waiting for her next 30-minute opening, which might not be available for two weeks.

4. Hold office hours.
Mayer brought this idea from her experience teaching computer science at Stanford, where she first met the two guys who would go on to revolutionize how the world gets its information. Beginning at 4 p.m., for 90 minutes a day, Mayer holds office hours.

Employees add their name to a board outside her office, and she sees them on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sometimes project managers need approval on a marketing campaign; sometimes staffers want a few minutes to pitch a design (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/30/06, "Inside Google's New-Product Process").

Says Mayer: "Many of our most technologically interesting products have shown up during office hours. Google News, Orkut [Google's social networking site], Google Reviews, and Google Desktop all showed up first in office hours." During office hours, Mayer can get through up to 15 meetings, averaging seven minutes per person.

5. Discourage politics, use data.
One of Mayer's "Nine Notions of Innovation" is "Don't politic, use data" (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/19/06, "9 Notions of Innovation").

This idea can and should apply to meetings in organizations in which people feel as though the boss will give the green light to a design created by the person he or she likes the best, showing favoritism for the individual instead of the idea.

Mayer believes this mindset can demoralize employees, so she goes out of her way to make the approval process a science. Google chooses designs on a clearly defined set of metrics and how well they perform against those metrics. Designs are chosen based on merit and evidence, not personal relationships.

Mayer discourages using the phrase "I like" in design meetings, such as "I like the way the screen looks." Instead, she encourages such comments as "The experimentation on the site shows that his design performed 10% better." This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today's corporations.

6. Stick to the clock.
To add a little pressure to keep meetings focused, Google gatherings often feature a giant timer on the wall, counting down the minutes left for a particular meeting or topic. It's literally a downloadable timer that runs off a computer and is projected 4 feet tall.

Imagine how chaotic it must look to outsiders when the wall shows several displays at once—the presentation, transcription, and a mega-timer! And yet, at Google, it makes sense, imposing structure amidst creative chaos. The timer exerts a subtle pressure to keep meetings running on schedule.

Mayer does have one caveat when it comes to the timer—maintain a healthy sense of humor about it. (The timer was counting down to the end of my interview with Mayer—but she turned it into a fun and friendly reminder instead of an abrupt end to our discussion.)

Please keep in mind that these meeting techniques work well for Google. They may or may not be appropriate for your place of business. But these six keys should give you some new ideas about how to transform your meetings from a waste of time to time well spent.

Source: www.businessweek.com.

International Day of People with Disabilities - Today

December 3rd is International Day of People with Disabilities. Proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, this day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues, the rights of persons with disabilities and integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect like political, social, economic and cultural life of their communities.

Deepam Festival on Dec 1

I am a native of Tiruvannamalai. I am going today for Karthigai Deepam festival which is famous in my hometown. Hope you might have heard of the festival. It's a 10-day long festival and on the 10th day Deepam will be lit on the top of the hill.
When I was in school, we would eagerly wait for the festival to come because we would get 10-day holiday[after our half yearly exams get over]. We used to visit temporary shops & exhibitions which will be opened for the festival. It used to be lot of fun those days.
This year the deepam festival[10th day] will be celebrated on Dec, 1, 09. If you people get time to watch TV, please do see the festival live [I think broadcasters will be DD Podhigai, Raj TV, Sun News, Jaya TV] @ 6PM. Wishing you a Happy Deepam in advance.

BTW, the answers for previous post [Quiz] are given below:
1) Gurkhas are the original inhabitants from Nepal
2) Who was the first man to reach north pole - Rear Admiral Robert E.Peary
3) First secretary general of UNO - Trygve Lie
4) Nick name of new york city - Big apple

GK Questions

Hi,

Please try to answer the below questions

1) Where from Gurkhas inhabit?
2) First man to reach North Pole?
3) First secretary general of UNO?
4) Nickname of Newyork City?

Why Program in C++?

So what is so special about C++? Why should you use C++ to develop your applications? First, C++ is not the best language to use in every instance. C++ is a great choice in most instances, but some special circumstances would be better suited to another language.

There are a few major advantages to using C++:

1. C++ allows expression of abstract ideas

C++ is a third generation language that allows a programmer to express their ideas at a high level as compared to assembly languages.

2. C++ still allows a programmer to keep low-level control

Even though C++ is a third generation language, it has some of the "feel" of an assembly language. It allows a programmmer to get down into the low-level workings and tune as necessary. C++ allows programmers strict control over memory management.

3. C++ has national standards (ANSI)

C++ is a language with national standards. This is good for many reasons. Code written in C++ that conforms to the national standards can be easily integrated with preexisting code. Also, this allows programmers to reuse certain common libraries, so certain common functions do not need to be written more than once, and these functions behave the same anywhere they are used.

4. C++ is reusable and object-oriented

C++ is an object-oriented language. This makes programming conceptually easier (once the object paradigm has been learned) and allows easy reuse of code, or parts of code through inheritance.

5. C++ is widely used and taught

C++ is a very widely used programming language. Because of this, there are many tools available for C++ programming, and there is a broad base of programmers contributing to the C++ "community".

Few C++ Programs

Answer for Previous Post: Ventriloquist.

Ventriloquism is an act of stagecraft in which a person (a Ventriloquist) manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy".

Please try to solve below C++ Programs.

1)

main()
{
float i = 1.1;
double j = 1.1;
if(i==j)
printf("Equal value");
else
printf("Not an equal value");
}

Answer: Not an equal value

2)

main()
{
int i=-1,j=-1,k=0,l=2,m;
m=i++&&j++&&k++||l++;
printf("%d %d %d %d %d",i,j,k,l,m);
}

Answer: 0 0 1 3 1

3)

main()
{
char string[]="Hello World";
display(string);
}
void display(char *string)
{
printf("%s",string);
}

Answer: the function "display" definition should be before the main funtion. otherwise the parameter "string" datatype will be considered as int by default.

Guess the profession :)

Hi All,

This is my first post in Learning curve blog.

I hope you people have seen recent ad of Aamir Khan in Tata Sky. He actually appears along with a monkey doll and he gives voice for monkey also. In Aval oru thodarkadhai and Avargal, Kamal also appeared the same way wherein he produces different sound. Now my question is what do you call such people? I mean you call people who does magic as magician & so on. Similar way what you call people who along with monkey-kind-of doll creates different voice.

Please go thro' my blog whenever you people find time. [Its http://jayamurugan.blogspot.com].

By the way, Thanks for Ramesh for adding me to this blog as a member & Owner.

Maths problem

e^{3 – 12u} = 0.4u ... How to solve this equation to find u?

Maths related problems

1. Problem 1

Assume the radius of one circle is 5 cm. what is the area of shaded region?

2. Problem 2

In 2 dimension, the area is divided into 4 quadrants.

Same way, in 3 dimension, how the space is divided?

Note: pls answer as shown below:

problem 2:answer:____

_____

3. Problem 3

= 2

What is the value of the variable X in the equation as shown above?

Useful items

1. Convert doc to pdf:

http://www.doc2pdf.net/converter/

2. Basic Mathematics:

http://www.scribd.com/full/17397028?access_key=key-ak8aalaiuvj7u6af2q3

Puzzle of the week