Meetings don't need spectators

Limit the number of people in the room

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that meetings don't need spectators. Ideally, meetings only

(00:24):
happen if something is going to change in the world
as a result of the meeting happening. The only people
who should be at the meeting are the people needed
to make the decision that will result from the meeting. Otherwise,
the odds are good that you are wasting someone's time.

(00:45):
Today's tip, like others we will cover on this podcast
in upcoming episodes, comes from the book The Friction Project
by Robert Sutton and Huggy Row. They argue that organizational
friction can get in the way of productive output. Leaders
can help reduce friction by thinking of themselves as trustees

(01:10):
of their team's time, making sure it is spent wisely.
If you have ever had a corporate job, you won't
be surprised to find out that Sutton and Rau find
some meetings wasteful. One way to make them better, they

(01:30):
quote an initiative from Dropbox that instructed employees to invite
only key stakeholders, not spectators. I think this is a
great distinction. Some people are absolutely necessary for our meeting
to happen. If you are trying to get someone to

(01:52):
fund your proposal, you need whoever can decide to allocate
the money to be there. Also, if it is your proposal,
then you need to be there. That is straightforward enough.
But then there are other people. Sometimes people are there

(02:13):
just to listen or to weigh in when that can
be helpful, or to show that they think the topic
is important, or because they used to be on the
team and people think it would be good to invite them,
or who knows. They aren't necessary for the decision though,
and so they are spectators. And unfortunately, spectators aren't just

(02:37):
wasting their own time, they can waste the time of
people who do have to be there too, for starters,
When meetings include spectators, the meetings are simply harder to
schedule because you have to accommodate the stakeholders schedules and
the spectators. Plus, meetings with spectators take longer because more

(03:01):
people tend to talk. People in the meeting may feel
compelled to comment to signal the importance of their presence
or the issue, or to show that they are on task,
or even just that they take the matter seriously, even
if they don't have much new to add. Better to

(03:21):
limit the spectator phenomenon as much as possible. This isn't
a hot new musical. It is a meeting. There is
no need for an audience now. To be sure, this
is not an easy cultural switch. If your general corporate
vibe is inclusive, a word that sounds so nice but

(03:46):
can be impractical in practice. People can sometimes feel left
out when they are not included, so you may need
to reframe all this. You are not disinviting people. You
are freeing people up to do even more important work,

(04:06):
and so they don't need to stay late to get
real work done after all the meetings are over. I
know there is a certain desire to be in the
room when it happens, but hopefully people have their own
rooms where it is happening for other things, and when
people aren't going to dozens of meetings weekly, they have

(04:27):
time to actually prepare for each one. In the meantime.
This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.

(04:50):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(05:12):
listen to your favorite shows.