If you think you have too many meetings at work, or if your boss talks too long, youʻre not alone. In fact, thatʻs a current focus for an influential group in China: the Chinese Communist Party.
Itʻs official. The Chinese Communist Party wants government bureaucrats to have fewer meetings and shorter speeches.
And while theyʻre at it, they need to tighten up their writing.
That word comes from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party — and was duly reported last week by Chinaʻs official news agency, Xinhua.
The goal is, in part, to “free grassroots officials...from pointless formalities.”
As for speeches, they should be no longer than one hour.
Meetings should be streamlined — and most should have fewer participants.
A memo from the State Council Information Office says another point of attack is “to control document quality.”
The length of most documents should be no more than 5,000 Chinese characters.
What that means in English language word count is a matter of some debate among various translation websites, but generally itʻs between 3,000 and 3,800 words.
So if itʻs a typical double-spaced memo, it could be 10 to 15 pages long.
Also, government departments should produce fewer written reports each year than the previous year.
But if departments exceed that number—they need to explain why. In another written report.
