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Meetingitis – a phenomenon I’ve been allergic to for several years. I’ve never liked the bidding war of who has more meetings per day.

I remember when at one of the joint workshops that started at 9 and were supposed to end at 2, Maciek Pawłowski asked 15 participants a question:

How long do you think this workshop lasts?

That moment when we held back the first, theoretically obvious answer of 5 hours, and responses started appearing – Hey, wait, but there are 15 of us…

How much do you think this workshop costs?

And that moment when answers appear that besides the amount on the invoice, you also need to add the working hours of each participant, preparation time for the (e)scenario… Suddenly it turns out to be more than we thought.

The real cost of meetings is one of the arguments why I’m not their fan. Workshops yes, meetingitis no.

Another is their usually average value, it can even be frustrating, because meeting to arrange another meeting is something I really don’t like…

And I could probably multiply my complaints about meetings here, BUT!

I’m a huge fan of cooperation, collaboration, especially asynchronous, but also spontaneous, structured and with an agenda.

The moment when #JurgenAppelo, author of Management 3.0 among others, said from the stage today the sentence STOP MEETING, START COLLABORATING, I jumped up, started applauding and surprised the speaker. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to immortalize this connection – the slide, Jurgen and two smart PMs I love working with, though I think we’ve never once scheduled a series of meetings, Tomasz Grochowski and Wojciech Dymowski.

A lot was happening on stage at the 19th International Congress Project Management Institute Poland Chapter today. On one I even went wild, but moments when one of my favorite authors of the management approach that I teach says what I do, practice and implement – priceless.

And how much do your meetings REALLY cost and last?

I hope FOMO and meetingitis will become history ASAP and we’ll start effective collaboration.