1. “I love me some…”

2. Most uses of “goodness,” as in “…gotta get me some of that [insert tech noun here] goodness…”

Thanks for your cooperation.

Um, I think it’s supposed to be “loves” me some, or possibly “LURVES” me some. Duh.

The fatwa aside, this is a nice idea but I wonder if it’s enough. What if meetings are shorter but just as ineffective? People generally have no idea how they are being perceived by others, which is one reason that videotaped job interview practice can be effective. Feedback on meetings needs to be part of a meeting.

My wife has a manager who mumbles for two hours and still doesn’t cover the agenda. He’s defensive and squashes dissent. His problems are more than meeting skills but neutral feedback on his meetings would be a good start. Two hours?—most people stop focusing after around 45 minutes at the most.

Ideas: a meeting cop—someone from another department not involved in the actual agenda—sits through the meeting and gives 5 minutes of (private) feedback?

Audience feedback, indicating when the meeting convener has overstayed his welcome. Something visual, like turning a cup upside down. When all the cups are upside down, you’ve blown it.

While this could be a means of drilling the point of scarcity home, I think these tokens should be handed out at the same time as a handshake is administered - and the hand that does the shaking will have a joybuzzer attached. It’s funny and effective. No one likes to have a sit-down with folks who have joybuzzers, for fear of finding themselves sitting on whoopee cushions.

These would be fun to have lying around, and funny to use as a reminder to people to get a move on. Just possibly they might work as actual exchange tokens in a small group where everyone knew what they were. But, let’s face it, anyone who seriously tried to use these in broader setting as though they were a kind of time-money … well … “I paid for my 15 minutes, dammit!” … “Sorry, to continue I will need another token” … If someone was really insisting to me that access to them was controlled using these tokens, I’d be tempted to hoard the tokens for a while (or cadge them from others) until I had thirty or forty, and then show up at their office, plonk them on the table and say “OK, let’s chat!”

Holding effective meetings is a skill like any other. Handing out tokens won’t teach people a skill. If anything it would cause resentment in the workplace.

Here’s a few things I have picked up from experience: 1) Have an agenda which is sent to people BEFORE the meeting. 2) Have clearly defined issues on the agenda, and have clearly defined resolutions to those issues. Everyone should leave the meeting feeling like progress was made towards something. 3) Have a meeting leader. They keep everyone focused on the agenda items and time. 4) No meeting over an hour. Ever.

If for any reason any of the four of these items can’t be fulfilled, then this is a meeting that should never have happened in the first place.

I love the idea of making my time worth something to my fellow co-workers. However, I think for large projects involving writers, designers, developers, marketers, management, etc. you will cook through all of your tokens very quickly just getting the project rolling.

I can also see management not putting up with the token restrictions. “I’m your boss, I don’t need to use a token to talk to you.”

Or am I just crazy?

I think Mike would be the first to say that this is a Crazy Experiment. But I’ll tell you what I really like about it.

• We’re placing even a tentative stake in the ground that says these resources — which we’ve all started to treat as 1) constantly available and 2) theoretically endless — do in fact have both limits and limitations. And we’re going to express that in undeniable physical terms
• We’re realigning the implicit idea that everyone in the room needs to be there for every meeting from beginning to end. Because, as with email spam, meetings will change a lot when the people with the power to call them are made to pay something…anything. It’s simple economics.

Building good habits? Maybe / maybe not.

But when you charge a nickel for the hotel ice machine, the number of ice fights kids have plummets. Does it solve the problem of ice fights? Nope. But it does get kids out of the habit of thinking a) hallways are for ice fights, and b) ice machines will happily afford their abuse by providing an endless free supply of ammo.

Anyhow, I’ve asked Mike to write up his experience with meeting tokens for the site, so I encourage everyone to keep an eye out. Should be pretty interesting.

I think this is a great idea! I don’t think the idea is to limit time but instead, to add a value to it. When there is value attached and a sense of scarcity, people will assess the importance of wasting someone’s time before they do it. More productivity.. less wasted time!