Leave When Bored

This is a rule we use at ObjectMentor. It is as simple as it sounds. If you are in a meeting and you are bored, LEAVE. You have that right as an attendee. It's your time, after all. It is one of the odd rules that could never possibly work, but seems to.

The strength of this practice is that if you own the meeting and you know that people will LeaveWhenBored, what do you do? You put the most important stuff first. Second, you probably think through why you're having a meeting in the first place. Third, you'll be judicious in whom you invite. Pretty neat, huh?

In many (most?) organizations, this rule will be killed by those acting in their own interest and not that of the team they meeting with. Used improperly, this can be a very bad practice. It works great for us, though. A bunch of our clients have tried it; some keep it, some toss it. Give it try! Report how it goes here.

Yet more advice that works great if you are completely solvent, fire-proof, and charging huge fees... --PhlIp

It depends on your definition of "bored." Some crucial information may be "boring." Is it then the responsibility of the meeting organizer to try and jazz it up just so people don't leave and totally screw up the project? This sort of thing can easily be carried AdAbsurdum.

LeaveWhenUseless? seems like a better absolute, if we're going to take things to extremes. When you have neither anything to gain nor anything to contribute to a meeting, you should leave. -- AndrewMccormick

Yes, LeaveWhenBored could easily be carried too far. But if you have someone on the team that never sticks around for more than sixty seconds, regardless of the topic, perhaps this is a personnel problem, not a problem with the SimpleMinded approach of LeaveWhenBored.

It would seem to me that LeaveWhenBored would need two things to really work. First, people willing to leave when bored. Second, a team culture that really believes that it's okay for someone to leave when they are bored, or if they have nothing important to contribute.

Or it is a phone conference and my cube has notoriously bad wiring. -- ChrisHyser

Third, a 'homogeneous' audience, unless you are willing to present the interesting bits before the foundation they are built on. Time for me to reread TomDeMarco's passages on throwing people out of meetings. -- DanilSuits

I leave whenever anyone else would have been bored. -- PhlIp

It's also worth noting that this can be used in a TimeManagement context; I've seen people leave meetings with the excuse, "I've got a lot of work to do," and in those cases everyone present seemed to accept this completely. And it's certainly fair; if you feel you're not getting anything out of the meeting, it's reasonable to slip out and get back to your work. If anyone complains, you have a fully reasonable explanation for your actions. -- BrentNewhall

Or, politely ask the presenter to sum up. This often prompts rapid completion.

In addition to meetings, this practice serves well for projects and even employment in general.

However, the next level of action after LeaveWhenBored would probably be RunAwayScreaming. Heh.

I agree that is a good idea for attendees to be allowed to constantly re-evaluate whether the meeting is the best use of their time. I dread to think of the number of irrelevant meetings and lectures that I have sat through because I felt at the time it would seem rude to leave. But, I think "boredom" alone is simplistic. Meetings often cover several subjects, not all of which will be relevant to every participant all the time. Your presence at a meeting may be important for someone else (e.g. a new joiner who would not feel confident without you being there). You have to weigh up the pros and cons, but boredom is only one signal. -- DavidPeterson