We are on a mission to cancel more meetings. At their best, meetings can spark creative energy and collaboration. But, too often, meetings are a waste of time, eating up the middle of the workday so a few people can blather at a listless audience.
The best weapon for eliminating a boring meeting is to make a recording. The mmhmm rule of meeting is this: if only one person is talking during a meeting, you can replace it with a recording everyone can watch on their own time.
Choosing the right words is important. With mmhmm recordings, you can perfect your talk so that your timing is perfect and you never misspeak. And with mmhmm Business, you can make videos public to the whole organization so your colleagues can scroll through and decide what they want to catch up on.
Replacing meetings with recorded updates has radically transformed how we work at mmhmm, saving time while still giving people an easy way to reference important information. A small block on the calendar can be used to catch up on several videos.
One of my colleagues, Senior Social Media manager Mary Pendleton, says, “I love to catch up on recorded updates while riding my stationary bike or on the treadmill—my favorite type of multitasking!” We’ve found that videos provide a better sense of colleagues’ personalities, building connections—even if they have never met in real life.
Here’s a sample script and slide list for a 1- to 2-minute minute video update:
Slide 1: Today’s date
Open your update with a slide showing today’s date so it’s easy to glean the freshness of an update from the thumbnail.
Slide 2: Show what you worked on last week.
Give a brief update on what you worked on. This is a good place for a timeline image to remind everyone where a project stands.
Slide 3: Detail works in progress
Give a quick status on things you plan to work on this week. This is a great way to show some of your progress with designs or analytics you’ve gathered.
Slide 4: Unblock blockers
Indicate what’s getting in your way this week and who can help you resolve your issues for the following week.
💡 MMHMM TIP
If your company is reluctant to put the kibosh on all meetings, suggest replacing a single update meeting with recordings. Then, take a poll with your colleagues to see which style of update they prefer.
