Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you want to improve your meetings,
Speaker 1: consider all the meeting dimensions. Today's tip comes from organizational
Speaker 1: behavior and meetings expert Rebecca Hines, who is a guest
Speaker 1: on this podcast. A few months ago, she offered some
Speaker 1: practical advice for planning better meetings. Rebecca identified four key
Speaker 1: dimensions of meetings, length, cadence, attendees, and agenda. With regard
Speaker 1: to length, she suggested not just scheduling meetings for a
Speaker 1: half hour or an hour because those are the default
Speaker 1: in your calendar. Instead, consider how long the meeting actually
Speaker 1: needs to accomplish your goals. I would add that if
Speaker 1: you were in a workplace where people tend to have
Speaker 1: a lot of back to back meetings and hence are
Speaker 1: often running late or at least need time to transition,
Speaker 1: it can be helpful to start your meetings at say ten,
Speaker 1: ten or one forty, that is a few minutes after
Speaker 1: people will likely be getting out of their last meetings.
Speaker 1: That way, your meetings might actually start on time. The
Speaker 1: second meeting dimension Rebecca identified was cadence. Are you meeting
Speaker 1: more frequently than you need to? If so, stretching out
Speaker 1: the cadence could free up time for people to do
Speaker 1: the tasks that were assigned to them in the last meeting.
Speaker 1: It is also possible, though more rare, that a recurring
Speaker 1: meeting isn't happening frequently enough. Maybe there tends to be
Speaker 1: time with no progress between meetings because people are waiting
Speaker 1: until the next meeting to get guidance on next steps.
Speaker 1: You want to be sure you're a meeting as often
Speaker 1: as you need to, but no more. The third meeting
Speaker 1: dimension is attendees figure out who actually needs to be
Speaker 1: in the meeting based on who has the needed information
Speaker 1: and who is making the decision. You don't want people
Speaker 1: to be in a meeting when they are not adding
Speaker 1: value or getting value from it. I have heard it
Speaker 1: said that meetings don't need spectators, and I agree. As
Speaker 1: others have pointed out, you can get information from additional
Speaker 1: people before and after the meeting if needed. The final
Speaker 1: dimension Rebecca identified is the agenda. Determine what needs to
Speaker 1: be addressed in the meeting and what could be handled
Speaker 1: in email, quick conversations, or by other means. Rebecca says
Speaker 1: you need a meeting only if the purpose is to decide, debate, discuss,
Speaker 1: or develop. If you are a meeting planner or leader,
Speaker 1: you can make your meetings more productive by thinking about
Speaker 1: these four dimensions. Now, if you're an attendee rather than
Speaker 1: the planner, you may not have influence over all of
Speaker 1: these dimensions, but they still might be helpful for you
Speaker 1: to consider. For instance, you can request an agenda and
Speaker 1: in some cases you could then decide whether or not
Speaker 1: you will attend based on whether or not you will
Speaker 1: add value. A meeting is not an end in itself.
Speaker 1: Meetings are tools to do your job. By thinking about
Speaker 1: the length, the cadence, the attendees, and the agenda, you
Speaker 1: can increase the chances that the meeting actually helps you
Speaker 1: to do your job, rather than being a drag on
Speaker 1: your productivity. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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