Meeting Culture in Korean IT Needs to Change
Had 3 meetings today. Decisions made: 0. I could have been writing code this whole time.
Today's Meeting Timeline
9:30 - Standup meeting (scheduled 15 min, actual 32 min) 11:00 - Planning sync (scheduled 30 min, actual 1 hour 7 min) 14:00 - Sprint retro (scheduled 1 hour, actual 1 hour 43 min)
Total meeting time: 3 hours and 22 minutes. Out of an 8-hour workday, 42% went to meetings. Actual coding time was about 2 hours. The rest was lunch and filling the gaps between meetings by replying to Slack messages.
This isn't every day, but it happens 2-3 days a week.
Why Do Meetings Run Over?
I analyzed why the standup took 32 minutes. Sharing "what I did yesterday, what I'll do today, blockers" should take 5 minutes. But someone says "can you explain that in more detail?" and a discussion begins.
This discussion belongs in a separate meeting, not standup. But once someone starts with "just real quick," 15 minutes vanish. And cutting off a discussion that started in standup is hard. It feels like you're dismissing something important.
(I'm occasionally the one who starts the "just real quick" tangent. Working on it.)
The Pattern of Inconclusive Meetings
I've noticed a recurring pattern in Korean IT meetings.
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No agenda to start with. Meetings that begin with "Does anyone have topics to discuss?" Nobody prepared, so people just bring up whatever comes to mind.
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Decision-makers don't decide. "Let's think about it more and decide next time" as the conclusion. The same topic resurfaces in the next meeting.
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Too many attendees. Ten people in a meeting, three of whom actually speak. The other seven are just listening. Those seven could've gotten a summary on Slack.
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No meeting notes. After the meeting, someone inevitably asks "so what was decided?" Sometimes that person is me.
"It's Different at Foreign Companies"
Amazon's "6-page document" culture, for instance. Write a document before the meeting, attendees read it silently, then discuss. This way, the agenda is clear and discussion stays focused.
I tried introducing this to our team. It failed. Reason: nobody wrote the document. "Too busy." "I'll definitely write it next time." After three rounds of that, the initiative quietly died.
I learned that changing culture is 100 times harder than changing tools.
Things I've Tried
I've experimented with a few approaches to improve meeting culture.
Setting a timer: "This is a 30-minute meeting, so I'll set a timer." Worked at first. When the timer went off, people would wrap up with "oh, time's up." But after two weeks, "just 5 more minutes" and "let me finish this one thing" brought us back to square one.
Limiting attendees: "Only the 3 people directly involved — everyone else gets the meeting notes." Also worked initially. But when someone left out said "I'd like to sit in too," it was hard to say no.
Async discussions: "Let's hash this out in a Slack thread and share only the conclusion." This one was reasonably successful. But for complex topics, there was a valid counterargument that text-based discussion takes even longer.
Ultimately, It's a People Problem
No matter how much you change tools or processes, without the shared awareness of "let's respect each other's time," none of it sticks.
End a 30-minute meeting in 30 minutes. Make decisions during the meeting. Cancel the meeting if there's no agenda. Don't invite people who don't need to be there.
These are all obvious. Why aren't they practiced? Just in case. Because everyone should be included. Because leaving someone out feels rude.
Two meetings scheduled for tomorrow. Planned duration: 1 hour 30 minutes total. How long they'll actually take? It's like a guessing game.