Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to create better meetings. Meetings
are a necessary tool to do many modern jobs. Other
people know things that we don't. These people are unlikely
to show up at our offices unbidden at the exact
(00:23):
moment we wish to see them. They are unlikely to
be ready to talk about exactly what we wish to discuss,
so we schedule mutually agreeable times to meet. Hence meetings.
But like email, meetings are a tool to do our jobs,
they are not the job itself. And as I look
(00:43):
at people's schedules, I see that in many cases there
are so many meetings that they may as well be
the job because there's no time to do anything else.
That would be fine if every meeting was the best
possible use of everyone's time, But in an organization with
a meeting heavy culture, the only way to get people
to pay attention to a project is to call a meeting.
(01:07):
So then you wind up with meetings that result only
in finding out that yep, everyone is still doing her job. Well,
maybe because the meeting has been rescheduled twice to accommodate
the senior person who keeps getting called into other meetings.
To solve that problem of scheduling people, create recurring meetings,
(01:27):
ones that always happened at the same time. That seems efficient,
but these meetings then no longer need to justify their
place on people's calendars, and there can be a lot
of them. I was giving a speech once where a
woman stood up to say that she tracked her time
and studied her calendar and realized that before she even
got to say over her schedule, she was booked into
(01:50):
one hours of recurring meetings per month. That's about twenty
five hours per week. So she worked with her manager
and teams and got this down to sixty hours per
month or about fifteen hours per week. This was being
told as a happy story, but fifteen hours before you
even get to the one off stuff is a lot.
(02:13):
If you waste your own time, that's one thing, But
a six person meeting wasting six people's time is far
more expensive. Once the second is gone, it's gone. All
the money in the world will never buy that time back.
But I do think there are ways to make meetings efficient, effective,
(02:36):
and even pleasurable. The best book I've ever read on
this is called The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. Parker,
who plans events for clients, is often pulling together multi
day retreats, but a lot of her advice is smart
even for your standard Tuesday morning staff meeting. The first
(02:57):
step in convening people meaningfully, she writes, is committing to
a bold, sharp purpose. Practically, this means that something needs
to change in the world as a result of your meeting.
Parker suggests working backward from a desired outcome. This brings
focus to a meeting. She says, it may even help
(03:19):
a host decide whether a meeting is necessary for that
outcome or whether an email will do. You honor the
people at your meeting by making sure you're convening them
for a real reason. Second, think about who should be there,
and just as important, who shouldn't be there. Clearly, you
(03:40):
aren't going to invite someone who will actively sabotage your meeting.
But people invite others all the time just to keep
them informed or be nice, or to avoid having people
feel left out. We think it's collegial. Here's a thought.
Your meeting is not the cool kid's table at the cafeteria.
People who aren't fulfilling the purpose of your gathering, are
(04:03):
detracting from it, even if they do nothing to detract
from it, Parker writes, particularly in smaller gatherings, every single
person affects the dynamic of a group. You want to
make sure that everyone who is in the room is
participating for every minute they are there. If that's not
(04:23):
the case, the meeting should be shorter or have fewer people.
Or people can come for certain agenda items and then leave.
A good, tight meeting leaves no space for multitasking. Third,
think about the whole flow of the meeting, beginning to end.
(04:44):
It goes without saying that a meeting needs an agenda.
This means that the host needs to exercise benevolent authority
to make sure the gathering is moving toward its desired outcome.
Parker also tells people to pay close attention to the
beginning of a meeting. Often, she laments people start gatherings
with housekeeping and logistics. It seems necessary, but you are
(05:08):
missing an opportunity to sear your gatherings purpose into the
minds of your guests, she writes. She suggests thinking about
a hotel lobby or the first line of a novel.
A good opening honors and awes the people being drawn in.
Maybe that sounds like a bit much for your Tuesday
(05:30):
morning staff meeting, but you could go around the table
and have each person share one meaningful thing related to
the topic at hand. This can build trust. Groups that
trust each other produce better outcomes. Endings matter too. Sadly,
many meetings drag on far too long, with people fidgeting
(05:50):
and the organizer unsure how to wrap things up or
failing in a different direction. People stop precisely at two
without changing what they've been gathered to change in the world,
because everyone needs to march like middle schoolers to the
three o'clock class that inevitably follows the two o'clock class.
You want to leave with action items, But I also
(06:12):
like the idea of ending the meeting with feedback. What
was good about the meeting, what can be changed so
future meetings are better. We spend so much time in
meetings that anything done to improve them can have a
huge payoff. I know all this planning and intention might
seem like a lot for a meeting, but that's the point.
(06:32):
You can't have fourteen meetings like this each day. But
that doesn't mean you should lower your standards. It means
you shouldn't have fourteen meetings a day, So look over
your schedule and figure out which meetings should be given
loving attention and which need to be put out of
(06:54):
their misery. I promise you'll soon be feeling less busy
while getting are done. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
(07:16):
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then
breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com
that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
(07:39):
Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.