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 meetings don't need spectators. Ideally, meetings only
Speaker 1: happen if something is going to change in the world
Speaker 1: as a result of the meeting happening. The only people
Speaker 1: who should be at the meeting are the people needed
Speaker 1: to make the decision that will result from the meeting. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: the odds are good that you are wasting someone's time.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like others we will cover on this podcast
Speaker 1: in upcoming episodes, comes from the book The Friction Project
Speaker 1: by Robert Sutton and Huggy Row. They argue that organizational
Speaker 1: friction can get in the way of productive output. Leaders
Speaker 1: can help reduce friction by thinking of themselves as trustees
Speaker 1: of their team's time, making sure it is spent wisely.
Speaker 1: If you have ever had a corporate job, you won't
Speaker 1: be surprised to find out that Sutton and Rau find
Speaker 1: some meetings wasteful. One way to make them better, they
Speaker 1: quote an initiative from Dropbox that instructed employees to invite
Speaker 1: only key stakeholders, not spectators. I think this is a
Speaker 1: great distinction. Some people are absolutely necessary for our meeting
Speaker 1: to happen. If you are trying to get someone to
Speaker 1: fund your proposal, you need whoever can decide to allocate
Speaker 1: the money to be there. Also, if it is your proposal,
Speaker 1: then you need to be there. That is straightforward enough.
Speaker 1: But then there are other people. Sometimes people are there
Speaker 1: just to listen or to weigh in when that can
Speaker 1: be helpful, or to show that they think the topic
Speaker 1: is important, or because they used to be on the
Speaker 1: team and people think it would be good to invite them,
Speaker 1: or who knows. They aren't necessary for the decision though,
Speaker 1: and so they are spectators. And unfortunately, spectators aren't just
Speaker 1: wasting their own time, they can waste the time of
Speaker 1: people who do have to be there too, for starters,
Speaker 1: When meetings include spectators, the meetings are simply harder to
Speaker 1: schedule because you have to accommodate the stakeholders schedules and
Speaker 1: the spectators. Plus, meetings with spectators take longer because more
Speaker 1: people tend to talk. People in the meeting may feel
Speaker 1: compelled to comment to signal the importance of their presence
Speaker 1: or the issue, or to show that they are on task,
Speaker 1: or even just that they take the matter seriously, even
Speaker 1: if they don't have much new to add. Better to
Speaker 1: limit the spectator phenomenon as much as possible. This isn't
Speaker 1: a hot new musical. It is a meeting. There is
Speaker 1: no need for an audience now. To be sure, this
Speaker 1: is not an easy cultural switch. If your general corporate
Speaker 1: vibe is inclusive, a word that sounds so nice but
Speaker 1: can be impractical in practice. People can sometimes feel left
Speaker 1: out when they are not included, so you may need
Speaker 1: to reframe all this. You are not disinviting people. You
Speaker 1: are freeing people up to do even more important work,
Speaker 1: and so they don't need to stay late to get
Speaker 1: real work done after all the meetings are over. I
Speaker 1: know there is a certain desire to be in the
Speaker 1: room when it happens, but hopefully people have their own
Speaker 1: rooms where it is happening for other things, and when
Speaker 1: people aren't going to dozens of meetings weekly, they have
Speaker 1: time to actually prepare for each one. In the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.