How to Avoid a Slow Death by Meeting

What is your weekly meeting schedule like?

Do you ever sit in meetings for hours with your mind wandering, or checking your phone repeatedly while people discuss information that has very little relevancy to your work area?

Ever had so many back-to-back meetings that you feel like you have early dementia?

By the end of your week, you might feel like you are developing trichotillomania (pulling out bodily hair to relieve anxiety). I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use that word since graduate school.

Some of you have so many meetings—frequently difficult to sit through—you feel there is a good chance you might actually expire during an extra-long meeting marathon.

But meetings are an essential part of every team and organization. And there are definitely better and worse ways to utilize meetings. Most people have no training in meetings so they just take over a meeting and do what they saw the last person do.

Today’s article is a short summary of sound principles to avoid a slow death by meeting.

To begin with, a key idea is that most organizations have way too many meetings that are low value, and for that reason, they choke out productive employee time that could be used for high value projects.

Fewer, high-value meetings, with key stakeholders and clear actions—is the goal. The nature of your industry and job will influence how you implement the ideas below, but you should be able to apply much of it regardless of your work setting.

How to reduce meetings:

1. Have less meetings in general. Most organizations don’t need nearly the number of meetings they have. Research shows that the human brain is wired for addition, not subtraction, and for that reason, many organizations continue to add new meetings without ever taking the time to trim low-value meetings. Like a vineyard, the vine cannot direct its best nutrients and energy to the best branches without being pruned regularly.
2. Try making meetings optional. I won’t lie, this idea freaked me out until my boss tried it multiple times and I watched it work. A lot of meetings can be made optional without any problems. Many people love having the freedom to skip but show up for important meetings, especially if you hire the right people.
3. Reduce the number of people who attend. How many meetings do you have where there are just too many people who never say a word or turn their camera on? How much attention are they paying?
4. Include only the people that really need to be there. Ever have meetings where there are way too many people and ideas to ever resolve anything? Again, often less is more.
5. Do a meeting audit, experiment with removing meetings. This can be a really helpful exercise. Research shows that treating something like an experiment makes something easier to get rid of. Like a packing party with those old clothes you don’t wear (putting them all in a box in your closet to see if you ever have the desire to pull them out again), you may find you don’t miss the meetings you eliminate. You can always add them back if they are truly valuable.
6. Make meetings less frequent. Some meetings are necessary, but not at the current frequency. Try bumping some to once or twice a month and see what happens.
7. Shorten the meeting time. This might force you to be really focused with meetings. You do not need to have an hour meeting ever single time.
8. Don’t be afraid to cancel them. I used to do this all the time. I was afraid to cancel. Our boss will often say, unless we have a good reason to have the meeting, we can cancel. Instant time back, who doesn’t like that?
9. Make some meetings virtual or by phone. Can be helpful with hybrid workforce. Having phone meetings can reduce screen time.
10. Stack meetings on one day. Some people like “Meeting Mondays” where all meetings fall on the same day. This has benefits and costs. Getting all meetings complete on one day can be really nice and clears tons of space for focus for important projects, but can be taxing also. Schedule these on the days everyone is at work.

Meeting facilitation principles:

1. Know the type of meeting. Clearly knowing the type of meeting can help identify what it should look like. Is it a daily huddle, a data report, a weekly team meeting or an annual vision casting? The type is key for how to run it.
2. Every meeting should have a clear purpose. If you can’t articulate the meeting purpose to your group, maybe you shouldn’t have the meeting. Its always helpful to remind everyone why you are there.
3. Involve people! Great meetings can be interesting and exciting. By that, people should have a vested interest and purpose for being there. If people are quiet or look to be zoning out, invite them into the discussion.
4. Model healthy debate and never allow toxic behavior. If you want the absolute best meetings, you must model healthy debate and not allow any form of toxicity or disrespect. People will shut down if they don’t feel safe. It’s your job as the leader to set the tone. See my recent post on psychological safety.
5. The leader should not do all the talking. Most meetings should not involve the leader doing all the talking. Get people into the debate and decision-making process to make them hate meetings less.
6. If mostly virtual, make time for small talk. Virtual teams no longer have “water cooler” chit chat. Research suggests that setting aside much more time for small talk is essential for virtual teams. Don’t get right down to business or you will kill connection on your team.
7. Make sure you have breaks between meetings. Research from Microsoft showed that people in back-to-back meetings with no breaks, experience more stressful brain activity.
8. Start and end on time. There is nothing worse than waiting for people who are always late to the meeting or going over the allotted time regularly. Force the discipline of focused time.
9. Summarize and recap at the end. It is absolutely essential to recap what has been said to ensure everyone is on the same page. Otherwise, you may have wasted time in the discussion and people are not clear on the decision or what to do next.
10. Identify who, what, and when actions. This is a vital leadership skill. Make it absolutely clear who is doing what and by when. Make a discipline of doing this at the end of every meeting and your work will be transformed.

Take action now

Pick one principle above to try this week right away.

Use the WOOP format.

1. What do you want?
2. What would the outcome look like if successful?
3. Obstacle? What might get in the way?
4. When and how will you do this?

Have a great weekend!

Parker

*AI is never used for the creation of this blog. Every article is 100% human generated.