“I didn’t get any work done today because I was stuck in meetings”…
If I had a dollar for every time some has said that to me – my spouse, colleagues, friends, peers – I would be rich indeed. And every time I hear that, I cringe internally. Because built into that statement is the assumption that meetings don’t count as real work. And when I dig deeper to understand why the reasons usually fall within the same broad buckets. “The agenda wasn’t clear”, “There was no meaningful discussion”, “We shied away from disagreement”, “I wasn’t enabled to fully participate”, “Nothing was decided”, “We walked away with no clear actions or outcomes”.
I know I’m biased. I spend a good chunk of my life facilitating – meetings, retreats, workshops, trainings, difficult conversations. And I spend an equally large chunk thinking about meetings and how to make them better. So clearly I believe that meetings are, or at least, can be meaningful.
But surely everyone agrees that if meetings feel pointless then something is wrong.
Imagine a world where meetings feel like the best part of the day. A time when critical issues get discussed, decisions get made, and we walk away either more aligned or clear on where there is more work to be done. And best of all a chance for human connection with real people – virtual or in person. While I know some will be rolling their eyes at this, I truly don’t think that’s beyond our grasp– and I know that it’s possible to get closer to that than many feel.
If you have a sense that something is off in your regular meeting cadence, please reach out and let’s chat. I love nerding out on this stuff and would be happy to help troubleshoot what might be going on if that would be helpful. I also run quick and dirty facilitation 101 trainings if there are people in your organization who would benefit from understanding better how to hold space for teams and groups.
And in the meantime here is a fun (at least I think so) that might at least provide some relief if you are feeling overwhelmed with your current meeting calendar.
Meeting Audit
- Take a look at your calendar and list out all the regular meetings that you have.
- Give a score out of 50 for how USEFUL you find these meetings are.
- Give a score out of 50 for how ENJOYABLE you find these meetings.
- Add the two together. For any that score less than 80/100 ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it clear what these meetings are for? If not, how would I get greater clarity on that?
- If these meetings were to be 10% better than they currently are ,what would change? (Length? Frequency? Who is in the room? Process? Notes? Etc.). Where might I have any control over making at least some of that happen?
- Do I absolutely need to participate? What happens when I miss one? How might I experiment with cutting one out.
- Reflect on whether there is anything you want to take action on.
- For a bonus question ask yourself, what you would do if you suddenly had to create 4 free hours in your week (for something non negotiable) – what would give? What would you cut out? How would that impact you? What is stopping you from giving it a trial run?
