Before the pandemic, many of us led or participated in many meetings a week. In fact, according to an organizational psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, in the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that there are 55 million meetings a day. That is a staggering number, and the higher up in an organization you climb, the more meetings you’re likely to be required to attend.
Now with the pandemic many of these have become virtual meetings. Often this means sitting in front of your computer on Zoom or Microsoft Teams for many hours a day. One of my clients, for instance, had 48 meetings or appointments in one week.
All of this makes me wonder if the amount of time spent in meetings is contributing to workplace burnout, which the World Health Organization classified in 2019 as an occupational hazard. Moreover, research increasingly shows that sitting for long periods of time isn’t good for one’s health, perhaps contributing to higher rates of cancer or other ailments.
Fortunately, Freakonomics recently re-broadcast, “How to Make Meetings Less Terrible,” by Stephen J. Dubner and produced by Matt Franssica. It contained some great reminders surrounding best practices for meetings, some of which I’ve summarized below.
Tip 1: Don’t drain the life and meaning out of meetings.
Often people call meetings without clarity of purpose or objective. Before you schedule a meeting make sure you have an actual problem to discuss or a decision to make. If the issue can be resolved or decided over email, you probably don’t need a meeting.
Tip 2: Have an agenda, don’t recycle it, and invite the right people to attend.
Frame things on your agenda as questions. This will ensure that you’re honing in on the items that need to be discussed and decided upon. Once that is done, you can more easily determine who needs to be in attendance. Remember, the more specific the agenda, the easier it will be to issue purpose-driven invitations.
You can also think of categorizing attendees as core or secondary participants. For instance, you might decide to solicit input from the secondary participants and offer to share the minutes with them, as opposed to requiring them to attend the meeting. This can be an effective way to make sure people feel included, without taking up their valuable time.
Tip 3: Decide in advance how much time is needed for the discussion.
Don’t just default to an hour. This is the average meeting length, perhaps due to calendaring software, but often meetings can be much shorter. And, according to experts, the tighter the timeframe, the better. Limited time for discussion and debate creates pressure to keep things moving, and because time is a precious resource, this can be helpful.
Tip 4: If you’re leading, your experience is going to be more positive than the attendees.
Remember, when you call a meeting, you are creating an imposition on others. Be on time, don’t dominate the discussion, and be sure to end your meeting on time.
These are just a few of the tips that were shared. For more insight, please listen to the full interview or consider reading the following:
- The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance, by Steven Rogelberg. (90 ratings, 75% five star on Amazon)
- The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker. (227 ratings, 74% five star)
- The Meeting: Gatherings in Organizations and Communities, by Helen Schwartzman.
- Death by Meeting, by Patrick Lencioni. (504 ratings, 67% five star)