Back in August (2010) I wrote about attending a $17,904 meeting. It was painful to watch the PMO have a 3 hour meeting every month that seemed to cost so much but deliver so little value. As a follow-up post, I wrote about the value proposition for the expensive meeting.
I am happy to report that the meeting in question has been cancelled indefinitely. In one year alone, the cost savings is $214,848. Wouldn't you like to have that kind of money added to your budget? I want to be clear that I'm not being a hater of meetings. I'm being a hater of waste. Time and money are precious and I strongly believe we need everyone to communicate more. But it's about communicating effectively. I can facilitate the communication of more strategic information, without saying a word, by using a enterprise level Kanban. I can facilitate the communication of more tactical information, by having Daily Scrums or Stand-ups.
Though the cancellation was months in the making, I commend those who finally made the difficult (but necessary) choice. It's easy to complain about things but accept the status quo. It's hard to ask why and then act on it appropriately.
Drawings by Pictofigo