What are effective ways to design meeting agendas that promote work-life balance and well-being?

When scheduling a meeting in the best possible manner, follow the fundamental rules of, 1. Set a time convenient to all the people attending, if not possible for all in case of multiple different time zones, breakup the meeting. Ensure you confirm the time with people involved, so they have no conflicting meetings or appointments 2. Bring only the relevant people for the meeting 3. Circulate an agenda before hand. If you can allocate agendas to specific people as leads and respondents, much better to control flow of the discussion and keep time intact.

Each meeting should have One BIG Domino to knock down. One purpose and question to answer in the meeting. This should be the focus of the meeting, and be given the time and focus to be delivered. The role of a leader is to prioritise. And roll call meetings with no clear focus, are a waste of focus and engagement. One clear thing, at one time, … is what delivers results - and what will unlock the blockages and frustrations that are bringing office workers the world over down.

In my experience I tend to avoid meetings as much as possible if it’s not necessary; and the frequency depends on type of project or theme. I tend to understand the calendar of the person(s) I’m meeting, if just a 121 for a quick decision I literally allocate 15mins. A recent survey with a client with 220 team members illustrated that 87% of attendees felt the meetings were not effective because not everyone was able to speak or attended as an FYI. Lastly, one thing I’ve implemented in my corporate role and now introduce to SMEs with teams at the storming stage is to have daily stand-up Scrum style, limited to 20mins. I know first hand that these are still going after I implemented it in my last role in 2015. Tip: A day of 3 meetings max.

Challenging the norm, soliciting feedback and constant follow-ups in meetings might infringe upon personal time. Rather than making meetings a constant feedback loop, a balanced approach could involve separate sessions or channels specifically dedicated to feedback collection. This respects work-life boundaries, allowing for meaningful input without the pressure of immediate follow-ups. It's time to rethink the incessant cycle within meetings and consider alternative avenues for feedback to foster a healthier work-life balance.

Meetings today are broken - sucking engagement from teams, … and sapping time and energy from what matters. Fixing meetings is the most powerful lever today to improve employee engagement. By unlocking … 1. More time 2. More impact 3. Less frustration This means firstly having a lot less meetings. Many meetings today are performative - one or two people speaking, reciting presentation materials, for the purpose of forcing people to listen. There are better ways: stand-ups, briefings, memos, asynchronous online pack reviews … So mission #1 needs to be to clear the deck, liberate the workers, and release the load … … and watch engagement and positive focused work climb!

Think through how to best structure your meetings. I think it's valuable to come together in person. However, it's not ideal for every meeting or meeting purpose. Ask yourself: Can we accomplish this with a phone call? Should we schedule a video meeting? Or, does the purpose of this meeting call for an in-person agenda? Regardless of how you meet, have a specific start and stop time and an Agenda. If you're together, go to lunch or happy hour after if that makes sense!