Stand Up Meetings - Lose the Chairs and Save Time

A few years ago, I worked for a Los Angeles company that had a lot of meetings.  The gatherings were long and boring, but I guess it was important for everyone to have their say.  At that stage of my personal business evolution, I just accepted the fact that the meeting formats weren't going to change.  But something did change them, for the better.

Because the meetings were so long, someone on the team suggested we institute "stand up meetings."  Instead of sitting at a traditional conference table, we took the chairs out of the room and ran meetings while standing on our feet.  Well, the length of the meetings DRASTICALLY dropped, because people didn't want to stand for long.  Meetings went from 30-60 minutes to roughly 1/2 of that while still delivering meaty content.  Neat, huh?

Obviously, this system is not possible if you have a long strategic planning session, but it does work.  So why not try it yourself?

Susan Sabo's Productivity Cafe has a post this week about making meetings shorter, and more effective.  Check the post out by clicking here.

Picture courtesy of The Real Estate Solution

Comments

[Matthew Cornell]

Agile software development methods use this as well, e.g., Extreme Rules: http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/standupmeeting.html

[Ergonomic office chairs]

I think for a short amount of time the idea's great, but if the meetings going to last for over say 20 minutes a chair is essential.
The fat cats and big bosses will start to sweat and get grumpy, the result mass firing. Keep the chairs out the room but only for a short amount of time

[Jessica]

This is a common practice with in most healthcare environments and It works well. With in a healthcare context "stand up" usually lasts any where between 15 to 45 minutes everyday. the disscussions are usually focused on patient care issues and care plans for new incoming patients. There is usually time for issues to be raised to the attention of the administrator or department head on topices such as HR issues,vacation plans and coverage and other corpprate issues.

[Joey]

I completely agree with standing up. Here's a short video with meeting tips, including this one:

http://www.cubiclesfilm.com/2007/10/01/meetings-cubicles-survival-guide/

[Bill Reichart]

I remember seeing a show where Queen Elizabeth II, had all her staff meetings standing up, and the principle was that they moved much quicker...if it is good enough for the queen, it is good enough for all of us :-)
http://www.provocativechurch.blogspot.com

[Techboo]

This is a great idea.

If you prohibit sitting down in the meeting, you must remove the chairs, because people will tend to sit down rather than standup. It might work the first week but later people will sit down again.

In order to have stand-up meetings, you need to have the room with no chairs. :)

[Susan Sabo, Productivity Professional]

Bravo... great idea John! (and stunning photo!)