I recently came across a memo from Steve Jobs from 1986 that I would like to share:
Jobs called for a “meeting-free” day so that every employee has time and space to carry out individual work undisturbed and came to the conclusion that it is better for the company and product quality to actively do things instead of “managing” others who then do them (with lower quality).
Especially during and after the Corona period, the meeting madness has taken hold in many projects / companies and has not let go of us to this day. Voting or status appointments, dailies, weeklies, stand-ups, etc. If the calendar is already 3/4 full with regular appointments, there is little room for creativity or even innovation. Quality is done on the side while you’re half listening to the meeting. This is one of the reasons why many projects lose focus on the actual solution: the added value for the user.
Qualified employees are still our most important asset and often also our most important unique selling point. We should therefore actually try to use our employees as sensibly as possible: abolish unnecessary meetings, optimize participant groups and give people the freedom to leave meetings again if they can’t contribute anything, and simply let employees “work” from time to time.
If we then manage to appreciate the performance of our employees, we would have gained a lot.
For example, I find it It is very sad that many projects only talk about “resources” instead of people/employees/persons and give the impression that they can be replaced at will. Appreciation is different…
Steve Jobs’ memo would still be a very good template for many projects/companies today!
