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