May 09, 2009
IBM "Invents" 40-Minute Meetings
IBM has submitted for a patent with the US Patent Office for a 'System and Method for Enhancing Productivity.' They have come up with a way to increase productivity for organizations that hold numerous meetings a day. The invention consists of not permitting business meetings to be scheduled for a full hour during certain parts of the day. From the application, 'the observation is that if an hour were shorter, by a small amount, we would be more focused, and accomplish the same amount of work, but in less real time, thereby increasing productivity.'
The patent application states "a significant source of wasted time is the general predisposition to using integral units of time, based on hour or half hour increments. This is especially true of business meetings, which are invariably scheduled to last an hour. Meeting attendees will fill the full hour for which the meeting is scheduled regardless of whether the entire hour is necessary to address the business at hand. The result of this is that a meeting that could have taken less than an hour will end up wasting time due to the arbitrary hour-based scheduling paradigm."
Thus, 'the relatively shorter time intervals may force users in a collaborative system to exhibit greater efficiency. For example, with a relatively shorter scheduled time for a meeting, attendees of the meeting may be required to maintain greater focus in order to accomplish the goals of the meeting in the scheduled time. Similarly, the relatively shorter scheduled time may require more punctual arrival and greater preparation. For example, lateness in arriving at the meeting and lack of preparation may result in the inability to accomplish the goals of the meeting. With this knowledge, meeting attendees may make a greater effort to ensure that necessary goals can be accomplished within the relatively shorter time period scheduled for the meeting. Relatively longer time intervals may accommodate longer and/or more involved meetings.'
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