> Hey, I wish I'd known about this one. I had items that lingered for weeks, sometimes. Maybe a rule like "4 repeats and it gets dropped". That said, a countervailing rule of thumb is that every action belongs to someone. If they get too many repeats, it's time to find out why.
Exactly on all points.
I've found that repeatedly lingering issues point to deep organizational dysfunction. Elevating the priority or dropping it (up or out) can be a forcing function to take care of it if it's real. Making something high priority, even if it really isn't puts pressure on the doers -- they don't want to be the one who dropped the ball on a level-1 issue that's coming up over and over again. And everything has a due date, even if it's open ended...set a tone of work getting accomplished in a reasonable time frame and not dragging on even without a set due date.
If you drop it and it's actually real, it'll be brought up later when it matters to somebody.
> I agree with c), that meeting techniques can have a dark side...the utility of the fusty old rules...It's a spectrum.
I'm hard pressed to find ways to agree with you more :)
Exactly on all points.
I've found that repeatedly lingering issues point to deep organizational dysfunction. Elevating the priority or dropping it (up or out) can be a forcing function to take care of it if it's real. Making something high priority, even if it really isn't puts pressure on the doers -- they don't want to be the one who dropped the ball on a level-1 issue that's coming up over and over again. And everything has a due date, even if it's open ended...set a tone of work getting accomplished in a reasonable time frame and not dragging on even without a set due date.
If you drop it and it's actually real, it'll be brought up later when it matters to somebody.
> I agree with c), that meeting techniques can have a dark side...the utility of the fusty old rules...It's a spectrum.
I'm hard pressed to find ways to agree with you more :)