By rationing in-person meetings, their stature is elevated to that of a rare treat. They become something to be savored, something special.

Meetings should be great - they're opportunities for a group of people sitting together around a table to directly communicate. That should be a good thing. And it is, but only if treated as a rare delicacy.

When meetings are the norm - the first resort, the go-to tool to discuss, debate, and solve every problem - they no longer work.

Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.

The office during the day has become the last place people want to be when they really want to get work done. In fact, offices have become interruption factories.

I used to think that deadlines should be ignored until the product was ready: that they were a nuisance, a hurdle in front of quality, a forced measure to get something out the door for the good of the schedule, not the customer.