Meeting best practices (including remote staff)

We are all remoties!

Understand the reason for the meeting

 * Meetings can share information, solve problems, or make decisions
 * Generally, each meeting should only do one of these functions at a time

Have an agenda

 * Include the agenda in the invitation
 * State the purpose and/or desired outcomes
 * Choose a meeting format based on the purpose
 * e.g. "Go-around" (where everyone speaks), vs. Presentation vs. Discussion
 * Estimate the time each agenda item might take
 * For longer non-recurring meetings, consider building in a very brief (e.g. 5 minute) in-meeting retrospective
 * Was the meeting effective? How could it have been better?

Invite the right people

 * Require key stakeholders
 * Use "optional" where appropriate
 * A meeting that is generating ideas or collecting information can proceed even if missing some key people; a meeting that shares information or makes decisions cannot.


 * Choose the meeting duration
 * [Need guidance here]

Scheduling a meeting
See: https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scheduling_tips

Timing that accommodates everyone

 * Use the Google Calendar "Speedy Meetings" option
 * Half-hour meetings end after 25 minutes
 * Longer meetings end 10 minutes early (or five minutes if the start time was 5 minutes after the half-hour)
 * Choose the meeting day and time
 * Use the "Find a Time" feature in Google calendar
 * Be VERY aware of time zones
 * Encourage everyone to use the Google calendar feature to warn about creating meetings outside your working day
 * Also be aware of daylight savings differences

Leverage Google Calendar

 * Make the meeting editable by all attendees (checkbox in Google calendar)
 * Reserve a room if necessary
 * Appropriate size (not too big, not too small)
 * With screen/camera/speakerphone if needed
 * One person often doesn't need a room--can use ad-hoc space
 * Engineering admins are available to help
 * Can schedule the meeting, negotiating availability of people and rooms
 * Give them all the information they need to create the invitations
 * Meeting title, who to invite (required/optional), duration (specify that you want "speedy"),  preferred dates/times, brief description including links to agenda  and/or minutes
 * Ask them to make the meeting editable by all attendees

Prepare schedule and note-taking

 * Figure out a consistently good time for all members of the team (e.g., PT mornings to include Europeans)
 * Or if there is no consistently good time, try rotating times so everyone gets to share the pain of being on super-late or super-early
 * Attach a Google Hangout to all meetings regardless of whether you know someone will be remote, you never know who will work from home
 * Set up note-taking
 * Include a link to the notes (minutes) in the invitationthew
 * Create an etherpad or google doc, which serves as both Agenda and Minutes
 * Note that etherpad is PUBLIC and anything entered CANNOT be fully erased
 * If a google doc, share it ("Can Edit") with whoever is appropriate
 * For non-sensitive topics, sharing with WMF is usually fine
 * For sensitive topics, share only with the attendees

Prepare materials and agenda

 * Before heading to the meeting, remind yourself of the purpose and agenda
 * Prepare any necessary materials (e.g. slides, images)
 * Be aware of any major political or interpersonal issues that might arise

Starting a meeting

 * If in a room, arrive at least 5 minutes early
 * If the room is still occupied 5 minutes before the meeting, let them know you will need the room soon
 * And consider evangelizing "speedy meetings" to the organizer (later)
 * Start the video call before the official meeting start time
 * If the video call won't start, try the other browser (Firefox vs. Chrome)
 * Sometimes rebooting also helps
 * Explicitly set the speakers/microphone (sometimes it is automatic, sometimes not)
 * Click the Gear in the hangout, and set speakers and mic to the specific device (e.g. Chat-150 or Jabra)
 * Open the chat panel (by clicking the icon at the top of the left sidebar)
 * If the keyboard/mouse batteries are low, email techsupport@wikimedia.org

If remote

 * Use a headset
 * Choose a quiet environment
 * Choose a non-distracting background view
 * If at home, make sure others know if they might be on camera
 * Consider muting whenever possible
 * If bandwidth is poor, reduce video quality
 * Click on the 5-bars icon at the top of the hangout
 * Open the chat panel (by clicking on the icon at the top of the left sidebar)
 * If you type something important into the chat panel, make sure someone noticed it

If in the office but not using A/V equipment

 * Use a headset
 * Don't have the call at your desk--move to ad-hoc meeting space


 * Always speak slowly and clearly
 * Language barriers, poor audio, or both, can be a problem
 * Don't dominate the conversation
 * Seek first to understand, then to be understood
 * Speak up when you have something relevant to say
 * Stay focused on the meeting (minimize emails/IRC)

Facilitating a meeting

 * Start the actual meeting on time "as a courtesy to those who were punctual"
 * If key stakeholders are missing, decide whether to proceed or reschedule
 * Remind everyone of the purpose, and quickly review the agenda
 * Use the Google Hangout chat feature in case there are connectivity issues so that the room sees it
 * Use IRC as a fallback.
 * For recurring meetings, start with any issues left over from the previous meeting
 * Be especially aware of when remoties want to speak
 * Try to keep the meeting in good order
 * If more than one person is speaking at once, most audio channels get fuzzed and the end result is the remote person can't hear a thing
 * Boldly (but politely) ask if deep discussions and long tangents should be taken outside the meeting
 * Last item in the agenda is dedicated to planning the next date/time.
 * Take a log of what has been decided for each item and who is in charge (kind of an action list)
 * Send that log to participants and let them review it
 * After it has been reviewed, diffuse to other non-participants
 * Stick to the agenda

Make sure someone is taking notes

 * In some cases, "everyone" can share note-taking, but the facilitator still needs to monitor
 * One person taking notes is usually better
 * Can be the facilitator, or rotating attendee, but whoever takes notes will be distracted
 * For recurring meetings, don't make the same attendee take notes every time
 * For important meetings that require intensive facilitation, consider bringing someone in just to take notes


 * If using etherpad, don't enter anything that is private
 * Security vulnerabilities
 * Vacation/travel schedules, health stuff, family details
 * Passwords
 * If notes will be copied to wiki later, enter them in wiki format to start with
 * == and === and ==== surrounding headings
 * * and ** and *** for bullets
 * Write any dates unambiguously. Use ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD.

Take a log of what has been decided
...for each item and who is in charge (kind of an action list)
 * Send that log to participants and let them review it
 * After it has been reviewed, diffuse to other non-participants

Ending a meeting

 * Start to wrap up a few minutes before the official end
 * For a speedy meeting, remember the earlier end time
 * Summarize key decisions and next steps
 * Agree on who will post the notes, and in what form
 * Have a plan for any open items with no clear next steps
 * End the meeting on time (or early)
 * Don't let the meeting expand just to fill available time
 * Ending early is a Good Thing™, as long as the agenda was covered
 * If appropriate, offer to set up a follow-up meeting to continue the conversation

After the meeting

 * Copy meeting notes to a wiki page
 * If in doubt, get permission from attendees first
 * Scan for anything that should NOT become public information
 * Circulate a link to attendees
 * Make sure people follow up on their action items
 * If a recurring meeting, set up the next meeting's notes
 * So people can immediately start adding to the next agenda

Additional thoughts

 * Remote people like the staff mailing list. It helps them keep connected to the life of the office, and it's easier for them to contribute using channels that are asynchronous.
 * Remote people like it when San Francisco people hang out on IRC. It helps them feel connected socially and casually
 * Be deliberately, explicitly nicer in text (e.g. smileys), because people will default to a non-nice reading of your text
 * If it's urgent, call your colleague on the phone. (And other items from this list.)
 * Meeting creator in charge of policing participants:
 * make sure people speak one after the other
 * agenda is respected
 * each item is allocated its amount of time
 * meeting end on time...
 * the shorter the meeting (less than 1 hour) the better. People start losing attention after 40 minutes or so

= Notes =
 * http://oduinn.com/images/we_are_all_remoties_latest.pdf (slides from an April 2015 talk at the WMF office)
 * Christopher Groskopf’s Tricks for Going to the Office without Going to the Office