The eyeroll says it all. You’re in another meeting with that manager who loves meetings about meetings. She’s waffling on again and your colleagues are failing to contain their disdain; it’s all nail-biting, clock-watching, side-eye glancing and leg jiggling. As usual this meeting is nothing more than a time suck.
Janice, the manager who called the meeting, is a notorious bore, and the rumour is that she only calls meeting because that’s all she gets done in a day. During these weekly trials her workmates dominate the conversation and there’s no opportunity to debate ideas or engage in critical thinking and problem solving. You know, the stuff you’re paid to do.
Meetings can be a form of torture. In fact during the second World War the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, recognised that bad meetings were a poison pill that could be used to frustrate and undermine the enemy.
The OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual contained tips and advice for ordinary people who wanted to aid the Allied war effort by sabotaging their workplace. It was distributed through enemy countries and reminded readers how easily productivity and order could be disrupted.
Middle managers, who had the greatest potential to disrupt things, were advised to gum up or slow down the works as much as possible in meetings. This included talking endlessly and bringing up irrelevant issues, digging in on an issue or position to waste time, referring decisions to committees (kicking the can down the road), haggling over wordings, minutes and resolutions, referring back to matters that were already decided upon and reopening them, promoting bad workers and holding unnecessary conferences.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Some workers spend up to 85 per cent of their time in meetings, according to MIT’s Sloan Management Review. Organisational psychologist Dr Steven Rogelberg’s book, The Surprising Science of Meetings, found that at least one in three meetings is entirely unnecessary. Eliminating these unneeded gatherings could save millions annually for larger organisations.
How would you feel if someone told you that all meetings were erased from calendars and scheduling new meetings was banned? Elated? You’re not the only one.
In 2023 Shopify cancelled all team meetings for a two-week period. They realised that too many meetings were reducing productivity and costing them money.
The company’s shift to a “less is more” meeting culture took time but it had immediate impact on productivity and worker satisfaction. Before scheduling any new meetings managers now had to be more thoughtful in their approach and justify the reason for the meetings and the people who needed to attend.
Wordpress and Automattic also changed their workflows to emphasise collaboration tools instead of meeting invitations. Of the more than 1,900 employees across 93 countries working in these companies virtually none of them have standing meetings in their calendar. How do you feel reading that? Jealous?
Badly planned, structured and run meetings are time tyranny. In business we need to fundamentally reassess what meetings are for and why they’re necessary.
Are meetings for communication, collaboration, connection or all three? How does collaboration and problem-solving really happen? Is it in meetings, during one-to-ones or when working on projects and problems together? What is the best way for the team to genuinely connect personally?
Meetings seems to be our default for everything, but often the most productive collaboration happens before anyone even enters the room.
Team get-togethers should not be wasted discussing lists of what was accomplished that week. Avoid what I call the “good girl/good boy” meeting where team members report in to their work mam and dad and seek approval or praise for outpacing their colleagues. This inevitably leads to conflict and competition instead of collaboration.
Progress on the team’s day-to-day work is best tracked in project management software or a spreadsheet that’s available to everyone working on that job. Instead of thinking of meetings first, start thinking strategically and intentionally about your purpose. What are you trying to achieve (problem-solving, decision-making, planning, retrospective reflection, onboarding, one-to-one discussion, all hands, feedback, stats updates)?
Can it be done in a different way: using emails, shared documents, project management software, an Excel spreadsheet or an interactive team workshop? How many people really need to be there? What’s the shortest length of time needed? Can it be a stand-up, walking or 15-minute daily meeting?
What’s your job in the meeting? The chairperson’s job? Is everyone clear on their role and responsibility? Has everyone read the material?
The best meetings are short, well planned and prepared, focused on the agenda, time-bound and facilitated properly by the chairperson. In addition to time keeping and getting though the agenda, the chairperson’s job is the make sure everyone is heard, records are kept, decisions are recorded and that any actions to be taken are noted with a deadline and the name of the person responsible for it.
For a more strategic approach consider embracing what’s called the collaboration stack and design it deliberatively to achieve your objectives. This is a combination of tools, technologies and platforms that help teams work together more effectively regardless of their location or preferred working style. Your collaboration stack processes and ecosystem should support project management, enhanced communication and knowledge sharing within the team.
Typically there are four layers: asynchronous, remote, hybrid and in person.
Asynchronous is when everyone is collaborating on shared goals in their own time using collaborative technologies (messaging, emails, project management apps, digital whiteboards) and shared documents instead of meeting in person.
For remote collaboration video calls and instant messaging can be good tactical decision-making and email for communicating externally.
Some tools and approaches work best for quick decisions, others for deeper independent thinking but, most importantly, these tools should help free up collaborative team time where they gather together in person to problem-solve, brainstorm and connect with each other. That’s where the real magic happens.
It’s time to say goodbye to most of your meetings. Just because you’ve always done it doesn’t mean you need to do it now. Thanks to technology and new ways of working teams can choose how to work and when to work based on their individual needs.
To assist in this companies need to have rules of engagement for each tool or technique. For example, a Slack or WhatsApp message is probably inappropriate to send to the CEO but ideal to use when you have a quick query for a colleague.
In addition, team leads need to be trained in how to design, plan and chair effective meetings. Facilitation and coaching skills are essential for this task as they will help them get the most out of all the team members during the meeting. These skill sets should be part of manager’s personal development plans, feedback and performance evaluations.
Time together is a privilege and it can be a wonderful means of personal and professional discovery. It can help you find out interesting new things about the business, strategy, market, your team-mates and yourself. Your new less is more meeting strategy should be designed with this intention in mind.
Margaret E. Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie
