You have them on your calendar and you probably don't like it. Today we're talking about status meetings. And more specifically, we're going to dig into what exactly a status is or maybe should be. My name is Jonathan Gautrelle. You're listening to Developer Tea. You've been to a million of these meetings and often there are too many people talking about too many things that don't matter to you and probably don't really matter to them. The status meeting format tends to go something like this. You invite everybody who could possibly be involved. And naturally, that means you're going to invite more people than is necessary. It's not necessarily on average to be in this particular type of meeting. And then you each take turns talking about what you've done recently, what you're getting ready to do, and try to explain any kind of blocking thing or any kind of breaking change you're getting ready to make to your service. And the intent here is seemingly good. This follows the format of, let's say, a stand-up or the scrum of scrums. This kind of meeting tends to operate this way as well. The problem is the thing that we are trying to make incredibly valuable, this synchronous moment in time, tends to be essentially valueless. Not only that, but it also becomes quite expensive. Even when you are thinking about status meetings with your own team, where things are highly relevant, you should probably dig into whether you're... actually reflecting on what matters. What exactly is the status? We're going to talk about that right after we talk about today's sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Square. There are millions of sellers across the globe using Square to run every aspect of their business. You've seen it around town and you've seen it online. Many of those sellers are looking for custom solutions. Solutions that they can't build, but you probably can. Solutions that are deeply connected and easy to use. And this is where you have an opportunity to step in. You can grow your business by extending or integrating with Square. Using free APIs and SDK... for those sellers. You can learn more by going to developertea.com slash square. That's developertea.com slash square. Thanks again to Square for sponsoring today's episode. We're talking about that meeting on your calendar that you seem to have 50 different versions of. And that is the status meeting. Status meetings have been demonized over and over. And it's sometimes justified. Specifically, status meetings where you go over the same kind of status... with slightly different words or slightly different audiences. So, we're going to talk about redefining status. So, we can then turn around and determine... whether those status meetings are necessary in the first place... and for the ones that are, make them more effective. So, let's talk a little bit about status. What exactly do we mean... when we ask someone for the status of a project... or for the status of a given task? Interestingly, when we discuss this, we can extend this... to the status of a given relationship... or progress on personal... projects or chores and tasks throughout your home. So, determining what exactly the status is... starts by breaking down status into an explicit definition... rather than the implicit definition. The implicit definition is what we already talked about. People talking about what they've recently done... what is complete on the project... what is the most recent feature they delivered... and what is coming up next. This is our common... important... implicit definition of status. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, this is exactly what we need to hear. For example, in a daily scrum... a stand-up meeting, whatever you want to call it... that daily update to your teammates... they probably have an ongoing idea... of what your status is as a teammate... but they may not know about something that's blocking you, for example. So, those kind of implicit existing standards... for a status... probably are useful in those situations. But, other situations may have a different definition of status. For example, a one-on-one could be considered a status meeting. But your one-on-ones are probably going to be... incredibly boring and not very useful for you or your manager... if you focus on the same kinds of information that you would give in a stand-up. That, what have I been doing recently? What am I getting ready to do? You know... what's the most important thing? What's blocking me? All of these things are probably not the highest leverage way... to spend your one-on-one time. So, what exactly is status in a one-on-one? And we should be asking this question for any kind of meeting... where we're exchanging information about current status. What do we mean by status? And this starts by deconstructing... and explicitly labeling the different factors... whether implicit and qualitative... or explicit and quantitative... that are meaningful to your definition of status. For a clear contrasting picture... imagine your status in a one-on-one... is explaining all of your aspirations... or your goals or your concerns... maybe your kind of personal experiences... over the past week to your manager. And then a report to, let's say, a skip level... or a few levels even higher than that... might literally be a stoplight system. Where you say, red, we're not on track... we're going to be late on this project. Yellow, we're kind of at risk... we might be late. And then green, we're going to be on time. This might be the kind of status... that you deliver in that particular scenario. Being as clear and thorough... with the various criteria... or the various factors as you can. For example, in a one-on-one... one of the factors that you're trying to determine... in a one-on-one... in that status... is some kind of emotional state. This is something that's kind of hard to do... if you don't have a synchronous meeting. So with one-on-ones... synchronous meetings actually provide a unique value. Whereas in the previous example... the stoplight status... may not necessarily need a synchronous meeting... in order to provide the same value. And to that point... once you've determined these factors... you should also determine whether those factors... can be or already are... captured at some source. Or if they need to be collected... or analyzed by a human. For example... if you have a good tracking system... for your tasks as they move through your workflow... if you have a Kanban board... or something similar... then there is something that is being captured... at the source of the work. The same is true if you have... version control, etc. There are ways of capturing information... that might provide a clearer... and more transparent picture... of a status... than a human... trying to remember it all. And here's why that's so important. It touches on a broader theme... which is enabling... a pathway for... asynchronously or on demand... providing the status. Once you have a shared definition... of what the status is... and if you can determine... that the status can be collected... or input directly... and collated together automatically... then instead of having status meetings... you can have status as a service... so to speak. Now instead of humans meeting... to discuss status and disseminate... that information... people can access that information... at any time on demand. Practically what this enables us to do... is shift into a bit of a higher gear... and get better leverage... out of our meetings. Specifically once we have... disseminated the status... by these asynchronous means... our synchronous discussions... can now be about the status. In other words inspecting... this information rather than... just providing the information. We can treat our meetings... as just enough meetings. In other words only the people who care... about the information that's been presented... will need to attend. If we don't have that information to begin with... then we don't know if we even care. Now I do want to clarify something... so that folks don't get the wrong idea... about what I'm saying here. We're not saying that status is merely... a picture of where your cards are... on your Kanban board. We're also not saying that status has nothing... to do with humans... interacting with each other. Instead the themes here are to make things... as explicit and accessible... as possible. In other words if you need a human explanation... of what's going on on the board... if you need that kind of... voiceover narrative... consider that one of those status... factors. You can still provide this asynchronously... whether you're recording a video or writing out text... so that it's accessible... at any time. Not just to those folks who had the time in their calendars... to attend a meeting. Finally if your objection to this... is that you never get to see your co-workers face... I'd like to challenge you... to establish whether this was... a status meeting... or a rapport building or cultural meeting. If you didn't have... the status meeting as an excuse... to meet... would you take the time to meet in the first place? Or perhaps a better question... would you feel the need to... seek permission to meet... for rapport building? It's traditionally easier to... seek permission for status... update meetings... and much harder to seek permission... for culture building and rapport building... meetings. If you find yourself in this seat... then it's worthwhile to track down... whether you're trying to fix your culture... or you're trying to solve a problem... with the wrong tool in the status meeting. Thanks so much for listening... to today's episode of Developer Tea. I hope that you will think about... status differently as you move forward. That you can start thinking about status... in its deconstructed form. What specific elements... what factors should I be thinking about... when reporting a status... and can we track those, trace those... asynchronously and provide them asynchronously. Thanks again for listening to today's episode... and thank you again to Square... for sharing today's episode. You can learn more about building tools... for millions of sellers by heading over to... developertea.com slash square. That's developertea.com slash square. Thanks so much for listening... and until next time, enjoy your tea.