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How do you quantify the revenue generated from coordination, alignment, transparency and any intrinsic motivation gained by including people in the decision mak

How do you quantify the revenue generated from coordination, alignment, transparency and any intrinsic motivation gained by including people in the decision making process? I agree a lot of meetings are pointless and not everyone present needs wants or maybe even should be there but I'm struggling to understand the quantifying you're supposedly able to do.

solveit 4y ago
Most of the time this quantifying is impossible as you say. But sometimes half a dozen well-paid professionals do spend two hours discussing the colour of a bike shed.
- mbrodersen 4y ago
  Heh in a lot of companies that’s what is happening most of the time.
mbrodersen 4y ago
Does the meeting move a revenue generating project forward or solve a customer issue? If not then it is 100% cost. BS feel good ideas like “coordination”, “alignment”, “transparency” and pretending to include people in the decision process has zero value unless it results in progress on revenue generating projects. The more people you include in a decision the slower you make progress. The sooner you make progress the sooner you get feedback and learn how to improve. The least productive and unsuccessful companies I have worked for spend most of their time on exactly the BS ideas you mentioned. The most successful companies I have ever worked for spent zero time on “coordination”, “alignment” etc. They were too busy killing the competition in the market place.
- dhzhzjsbevs 4y ago
  I've recently started being include in some meetings I didn't realise were happening. It's night and day between the crapshoot planning was before hand. Now when I suggest solutions it's based on what the company needs instead of what I think is best for a given problem. Those things don't align more than you'd think.
hinkley 4y ago
A couple years ago someone wanted to switch us off of Saucelabs because it was Expensive. I don't know how many 4-10 person meetings we had about it but it was a farce, and eventually I called them out on how many $5-10k meetings we'd had in order to try to save $25k a year. The opportunity cost in these situations is usually harder to quantify. But for me it was distracting from cloud infrastructure work that had price charts associated with it, and contracts that also had dollar values associated with deadlines. I think what annoyed me the most was that I had to point all of this stuff out to finally shut it down. Were were in a transitional period and people were trying to evaluate every sacred cow at the same time. That sounds like progress to some but like a recipe for burnout to me.
- mbrodersen 4y ago
  Yep it is crazy. Most employees have no idea how their work impacts the cash flow and revenues of the company they work for.
  - dhzhzjsbevs 4y ago
    Any ideas on how to train people in thos area?
    - mbrodersen 4y ago
      Ask people how they think their work contribute to the cash flow of the company. Ask them to consider what impact them not working would have on the cash flow. If their salary is greater than the income their work generate, then their work is actually not beneficial to the company. If they interrupt people who do have a positive impact on cash flow (unnecessary meetings) then it is even worse.

solveit 4y ago

Most of the time this quantifying is impossible as you say. But sometimes half a dozen well-paid professionals do spend two hours discussing the colour of a bike shed.

mbrodersen 4y ago
Heh in a lot of companies that’s what is happening most of the time.

mbrodersen 4y ago

Does the meeting move a revenue generating project forward or solve a customer issue? If not then it is 100% cost. BS feel good ideas like “coordination”, “alignment”, “transparency” and pretending to include people in the decision process has zero value unless it results in progress on revenue generating projects. The more people you include in a decision the slower you make progress. The sooner you make progress the sooner you get feedback and learn how to improve. The least productive and unsuccessful companies I have worked for spend most of their time on exactly the BS ideas you mentioned. The most successful companies I have ever worked for spent zero time on “coordination”, “alignment” etc. They were too busy killing the competition in the market place.

dhzhzjsbevs 4y ago
I've recently started being include in some meetings I didn't realise were happening. It's night and day between the crapshoot planning was before hand. Now when I suggest solutions it's based on what the company needs instead of what I think is best for a given problem. Those things don't align more than you'd think.

hinkley 4y ago

A couple years ago someone wanted to switch us off of Saucelabs because it was Expensive. I don't know how many 4-10 person meetings we had about it but it was a farce, and eventually I called them out on how many $5-10k meetings we'd had in order to try to save $25k a year. The opportunity cost in these situations is usually harder to quantify. But for me it was distracting from cloud infrastructure work that had price charts associated with it, and contracts that also had dollar values associated with deadlines. I think what annoyed me the most was that I had to point all of this stuff out to finally shut it down. Were were in a transitional period and people were trying to evaluate every sacred cow at the same time. That sounds like progress to some but like a recipe for burnout to me.

mbrodersen 4y ago
Yep it is crazy. Most employees have no idea how their work impacts the cash flow and revenues of the company they work for.
- dhzhzjsbevs 4y ago
  Any ideas on how to train people in thos area?
  - mbrodersen 4y ago
    Ask people how they think their work contribute to the cash flow of the company. Ask them to consider what impact them not working would have on the cash flow. If their salary is greater than the income their work generate, then their work is actually not beneficial to the company. If they interrupt people who do have a positive impact on cash flow (unnecessary meetings) then it is even worse.