This is the age of instant gratification and quick fixes, we consume information faster than any other generation before us, we can scroll through hundreds of articles on news reader sites such as Pulse or Flipboard and in a split second can determine what is deemed ‘read worthy’ before adding it to a read later app.
When watching TV, we are submitted to the MTV style of fast editing characterized by shorter shot lengths, faster cuts between shots, more jump shots and every trick in the book to capture our attention and stop us all from reaching for the channel hop button.
Even people, who have not been known for their multi-tasking prowess, can be seen in the favourite armchair mastering all of the above with ease, so it’s probably no surprise that our average attention span is a maximum of 10-15 minutes before we start to switch off.
The good news is these are just a few reasons that you start to feel a little sleepy or thinking about what you want to eat when you get home, whilst someone fights their way through slide 17 during a meeting with an unengaged audience in a meeting room near you at your workplace.
Most of us have experienced death by power point at some stage or found ourselves being bombarded with information that feels irrelevant to you or your role but by shortening the meetings and the use of technology, it is relatively simple to deliver a concise message and make productive decisions without becoming a time stealer to those around you.
The amount of hours that are squandered on unproductive meetings are well documented and it has often been reported how even weekly meetings can lose a company as much as 300,000 hours a year. As technology continues to disrupt almost every industry, we increasingly turn to new tools to be more productive and investigate different ways of doing things.
The humble meeting is in dire need of an upgrade to bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st century and Jason Shah believes he has the solution.
“Jason Shah is the co-founder of Do.com and aims to fix unproductive meetings, by helping users be better prepared and keep better track of what happens in meetings” Forbes
A quick look at the client list of who currently use “DO” contains the most successful companies in their world such as Microsoft, Twitter, Dropbox, Salesforce, Netflix, Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, The NBA and Disney. It occurred to me that if the most powerful businesses in the world are using “Do” for their meetings and literally doing things differently then I needed to find out more.
I invited Jason Shah onto my podcast to find out more about how Do.com can help you run productive meetings.
