Take Charge of Your Fucking Meetings
Often, a group of people set aside time on their workday to meet without any visibility of a clear direction. In a pandemic era, this is especially annoying because telecommuting means we’re all a little more scattered than usual, and video conferencing, with all its drawbacks, only adds to the frustration of meeting aimlessly.
However, there are ways to make sure your meetings don’t go astray without going overboard or confusing attendees as to where the meeting actually started.
Why meetings are losing effectiveness
Done right, putting everyone in the same room (or on the same screen) encourages collaboration, but there are reasons why meetings rarely meet the requirements, and the main one is that there are simply too many meetings.
Workers often complain about the frequency of meetings, and for good reason. As the Harvard Business Review explained in 2017, meeting frequency has skyrocketed over the past 50 years:
Such complaints are corroborated by research showing that the length and frequency of meetings has increased over the past 50 years to the point that leaders spend an average of almost 23 hours a week in meetings, compared with less than 10 hours in the 1960s.
To reduce the stress of overload in meetings, consider keeping fewer meetings. The number of daily meetings is staggering, exceeding 55 million daily meetings in 2015.
Or, as a countermeasure, consider turning your one-hour appointments into daily or two-day appointments. When everyone is around their desks, the implication is that you are going to keep silent about only the most important current tasks, so as not to take responsibility for keeping everyone on their feet. Of course, the latter option is provided to everyone in one physical space, but it is a viable option as we (hopefully) return to our offices later this year.
When you have appointments, keep the goal in mind.
If you are a team leader, the easiest way to shorten the meeting time is to create an agenda. If you have a well-defined plan, there is less chance of you straying off course. Set a timeline for the meeting, if necessary, and stick to the schedule. Obviously, there is nothing worse than twisty conversation that wasting everyone’s precious time, so stick to a bulleted list and keep an eye on the clock.
There are many ways to set an agenda or a common goal, not just by bulleting a document or specifying meeting options in an email invitation.
Be proactive
You all know the sight: a group of blinking faces staring blankly at their screens with their cameras turned off, waiting for someone – anyone – to speak. If you are a group leader, take the initiative and let everyone know that you are taking power into your own hands. This means reviewing the agenda and continuing the conversation accordingly.
Define a broader goal
Of course, the agenda lays out specific issues that you would like to address, but what is the purpose of taking everyone away from work for an hour if not making it easier or more productive? If you are hosting a meeting, there should be a general idea of what you want to achieve. Do you need to look into certain analytics to see what you can learn from the data? To get a feel for morale?
Each organization and team has different needs, but the overall focus of your approach should reflect what management consultant Amy Drader has outlined. She writes about the need for clear goals in an article for her consulting firm Growth Partners Consulting:
A valid purpose of the meeting will be action-oriented, such as making a decision or solving a problem. It might sound like this: “The purpose of this meeting is to discuss problem xyz and identify three possible solutions that need to be tested next week.” The purpose of the meeting is clearly indicated at the top of the meeting invitation when you schedule it. This informs each participant of what they should be prepared to do in this meeting.
Each group will have a different goal, but the means to achieve those goals must always follow the same roadmap.