Consider all the meeting dimensions

Plan better meetings by thinking about length, cadence, attendees, and agenda

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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 if you want to improve your meetings,
consider all the meeting dimensions. Today's tip comes from organizational

(00:26):
behavior and meetings expert Rebecca Hines, who is a guest
on this podcast. A few months ago, she offered some
practical advice for planning better meetings. Rebecca identified four key
dimensions of meetings, length, cadence, attendees, and agenda. With regard

(00:49):
to length, she suggested not just scheduling meetings for a
half hour or an hour because those are the default
in your calendar. Instead, consider how long the meeting actually
needs to accomplish your goals. I would add that if
you were in a workplace where people tend to have
a lot of back to back meetings and hence are
often running late or at least need time to transition,

(01:13):
it can be helpful to start your meetings at say ten,
ten or one forty, that is a few minutes after
people will likely be getting out of their last meetings.
That way, your meetings might actually start on time. The
second meeting dimension Rebecca identified was cadence. Are you meeting

(01:35):
more frequently than you need to? If so, stretching out
the cadence could free up time for people to do
the tasks that were assigned to them in the last meeting.
It is also possible, though more rare, that a recurring
meeting isn't happening frequently enough. Maybe there tends to be
time with no progress between meetings because people are waiting

(01:58):
until the next meeting to get guidance on next steps.
You want to be sure you're a meeting as often
as you need to, but no more. The third meeting
dimension is attendees figure out who actually needs to be
in the meeting based on who has the needed information
and who is making the decision. You don't want people

(02:19):
to be in a meeting when they are not adding
value or getting value from it. I have heard it
said that meetings don't need spectators, and I agree. As
others have pointed out, you can get information from additional
people before and after the meeting if needed. The final

(02:40):
dimension Rebecca identified is the agenda. Determine what needs to
be addressed in the meeting and what could be handled
in email, quick conversations, or by other means. Rebecca says
you need a meeting only if the purpose is to decide, debate, discuss,
or develop. If you are a meeting planner or leader,

(03:04):
you can make your meetings more productive by thinking about
these four dimensions. Now, if you're an attendee rather than
the planner, you may not have influence over all of
these dimensions, but they still might be helpful for you
to consider. For instance, you can request an agenda and
in some cases you could then decide whether or not

(03:24):
you will attend based on whether or not you will
add value. A meeting is not an end in itself.
Meetings are tools to do your job. By thinking about
the length, the cadence, the attendees, and the agenda, you

(03:45):
can increase the chances that the meeting actually helps you
to do your job, rather than being a drag on
your productivity. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

(04:11):
for listening to Before Breakfast. 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,

(04:33):
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.