Fig. 1: GTD Process for Meetings
I've written before about David Allen's Getting Things Done
(GTD) methodology. I'm still using the GTD process
fifteen months after I started, and it has significantly improved my
productivity and organization, freed up my mind from worrying about
what I have to do next, helped my prioritization of tasks, and reduced
my personal anxiety level. I'm flattered that my graphic of the GTD process has popped up all over the Internet, and my articles on GTD have been among this weblog's most popular.
I continue to use this abbreviated HTML table format to track my GTD 'to dos':
| A: ACTIONS WITH A FIRM DATE/TIME |
| | DATE TIME /DURATION | ACTION | | 2006.03.22 We 17:00 /2 | Appointment with RT | | 2006.03.23 Th 12:00 /6 | Discuss book proposal with John | | ...etc |
|
|
| | B: ACTIONS WITH NO FIRM DATE/TIME |
| | TENTATIVE DATE TIME /DURATION | ACTION | | 2006.03.24 Fr 09:00 /3 | Discussion paper on Sustainability | | ASAP | MIC research | | ...etc |
|
|
| | C: OBSTACLES, ISSUES & NEEDS |
| | PROJECT NAME | OBSTACLES & NEEDS (UNBLOCKERS) | | Recurring Activity x | cumbersome (call G to discuss) | | Innovation Project q | not sure I want to do it (decide!) | | ...etc |
|
|
| | D: INSPIRATIONS |
| | IDEA/INSPIRATION | SOURCE/LINK | | My Genius is: Imagining Possibilities; My Purpose is: Provoking Change |
| 7 Steps to dealing with any situation:
Sense, Self-control, Understand, Question, Imagine, Offer, Collaborate |
|
Fig. 2: Dave's GTD Table
Colour
coding differentiates my various projects, and I use italics for urgent
tasks and boldface for important ones. The urgent tasks still often
push the important ones to the bottom of the priority list, but I'm
getting better at resisting the temptation to do this. Each day I block
out the parts of my day not already scheduled (i.e. where there is
nothing for a timeslot in section A) by selecting and scheduling
actions from section B. New tasks are added to the table each day. Each
week I look at the Obstacles, and assign actions to deal with them.
When I'm discouraged I look at the Inspirations. This works for me.
I
had a meeting last week with friend and KM colleague Howard Deane, and
at one point we got to talking about meetings and how unproductive they
often are. He showed me a simple three-column sheet he uses to ensure
he gets what he needs out of each meeting:
| MEETING TOPIC | ATTENDEES | DATE, TIME | | ISSUES, OBSTACLES, NEEDS | OBJECTIVES, GOALS | ACTIONS, RESOLUTIONS | | Need more info on RSS/Sharepoint integration | Design integration approach, ID landmines to watch out for |
| | ...etc |
|
|
Fig. 3: Howard's Meeting GTD Table
I
thought this was brilliant. It's a GTD table for meetings! Know what
you need going into the meeting, set objectives for a 'successful'
(from your point of view) meeting, and document the relevant (to you)
agreements that came out of the meeting, agreed-upon actions and what
you personally need to do next on each point on this personal meeting
'agenda'. These 'need to do next' points then become new Next Actions
on your primary GTD list. This is precisely the kind of documentation
that I was already using in meetings using mindmaps displayed on a
screen at the front of the room, so that each meeting participant could
see what the issues were, what information was being surfaced and what
resolutions, consensus and follow-up actions were being agreed to (and
get a printed copy as they walk out of the room).
Before we can
integrate this into the overall GTD process, however, we need to think
a bit about how meetings actually transpire (especially if they're not
under our control). I think there are actually three 'kinds' of
meetings:
- Conversations, usually with 2 or 3 people participating, usually initiated by one person with a need or obstacle to overcome;
- Collaborative
group meetings, usually with 4 or more people participating, where each
participant expects to both give and receive (information, ideas,
advice etc.) and where many of the objectives, outcomes and actions are
collective; and
- Hierarchical group meetings, with any number of
people participating, where one person (call him/her the 'manager')
usually schedules the meeting, controls it and sets the agenda
(generally his/her own), where most of the objectives are those of the
manager, where consensus is usually not sought, and where most of the
follow-up actions are assigned by the manager to other participants.
There
are exceptions and hybrids, of course. Sometimes participants in
'committee' meetings are asked to submit items for the agenda, and the
result is that some sections of the meeting may be collaborative while
others may be hierarchical, with the person suggesting each agenda item
'managing' that part of the meeting. Some meetings are
information-seeking and persuasion events, where people looking for
information can ask presenters to make presentations (these are
hierarchical, 'managed' by the information-seekers), or where people
with ideas can offer (or be ordered) to make a presentation to
potential approvers (these, too, are hierarchical, 'managed' by the
approvers). Some 'management committees' are genuinely collaborative;
most are hierarchical, with members yielding to the executive who is de facto managing the session.
It
is important to know which type of meeting it is because one's personal
expectations of what one can get done during, or as a result of, a
meeting, depend on whose objectives the meeting is designed to address.
There is no point going into a meeting armed with a Meeting GTD table
full of needs and objectives if the true purpose of the session is to
address the needs and objectives of someone else.
Figure 1 at
the top of this page suggests an approach that I think could fit well
with the overall GTD methodology, and which is suited to all three
different types of meetings. Here is how it would work:
- On a
regular basis, you would look at the Waiting For, Appointment and Next
Action items in your GTD list/table, and identify: (a) for the Waiting
For items, what exactly you are waiting for and from whom, (b) for the
Appointment items, what you need in advance for that appointment to be
effective, and (c) for the Next Action items, what issues, obstacles or
needs are (or could soon be) delaying or adversely affecting effective
completion of that action.
- From this, you would make a list of
Issues, Obstacles and Needs, which would generally consist of some mix
of needs for: information, clarification, ideas, advice, resources
and/or agreements (approvals or consensus).
- You would add these
Issues, Obstacles and Needs to your GTD list/table. If you use David
Allen's schema of items, this might be an additional item type (I -
Issues, Obstacles & Needs). My adaptation of GTD (Figure 2) already
has a table section (Section C) for obstacles, issues and needs, along
with room for steps that might 'unblock' them. Whatever works for you.
- Now you would set up one of Howard's 'Meeting GTD' tables (Figure 3) for each
meeting that you are scheduled to attend (or need to set up to address
some of these issues, obstacles and needs), and fill in the first
column.
- Next you would fill in the second column (your personal
Meeting Objectives) for each row of each Meeting GTD table (Figure 3)
-- setting your expectations on how that meeting could/should resolve
your issues, obstacles and needs.
- What happens next depends on the type of meeting.
- If it's a hierarchical meeting that someone else controls, manage your expectations accordingly: you should not expect the meeting to address and resolve issues, obstacles and needs, though you are not ruling out the possibility.
- If
it's a conversation with 2-3 people, probably impromptu, and you're not
the initiator, you will probably have to content yourself with helping
the initiator address their issues, obstacles and needs.
- If you are the initiator of the conversation, you should
prepare a Meeting GTD table for it -- so you stay focused on your
reasons for initiating it (for all participants' sake), so you ensure
it addresses your issues, obstacles and needs, and hence meets your
Meeting Objectives, and so that you can simply document and acknowledge
the assistance of the other participants who are giving you their time.
- If
it's a collaborative meeting, I'd suggest you try using a mindmap,
displayed throughout the meeting by projector onto a screen at the
front of the room. Set up 'nodes' of the meeting mindmap for each of
the issues/obstacles/needs you personally hope to resolve, and your
personal objectives and goals for resolving them. Invite other
collaborators to add theirs (either before or at the start of the
meeting), so that the issues and objectives now become collective,
shared by all participants. As information is brought forward, and as
resolutions and actions are agreed upon, post them up as well. At the
end of the meeting, print and hand out the mindmap to all participants.
Try this -- it works!
- Either as the meeting proceeds, or
by transcribing from the mindmap, post the Actions & Resolutions to
column 3 of your personal Meeting GTD Table.
- Finally, as
appropriate, re-post these Actions (as Next Actions) to your overall
GTD list/table. File the Meeting GTD Table as backup documentation to
support what you are doing (or in case you need to recall why you are
doing it), and schedule these Next Actions.
I've been looking
for a way to integrate my Meeting Mindmaps into my GTD process, and
also for a way to get more out of small-group conversations by setting
my specific purpose and objectives for them in advance. Howard's table
does both very elegantly, and also allows us to apply the principles of
Getting Things Done to meetings (where they are often sorely needed).
Bravo!
What do you think? Are their other situations where the
ideas of GTD might be adapted to help us become more productive? How
about GTD On the Road? Or GTD when you're away from your computer? And
what about GTD through more effective use of research, information and
technology? |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
