Not everything needs to be a meeting

Welcome to Ryan’s Rant, my weekly newsletter aimed at helping companies drive customer-centric growth.

I think most people, if they're being honest with themselves, would tell you that their job is to attend meetings all day.

They may have a more official title, but their day-to-day job mostly consists of sitting in meetings —? Zoom meetings in particular.?

And I look at all these meetings and how poorly they're run. I look at how many people are in those meetings. I think about how much time those people spend on decks. And how much time they spend in meetings about decks and in pre-meetings for their other meetings.?

And it all feels like a waste of time.?

There are only so many hours in a day. Is this the right way to spend those hours?

The problem with our meeting culture

So many of the people I talk to complain about how much time they spend in meetings, and how they struggle to find the time to do any of the “real work” they need to get done — let alone use the bathroom or grab a snack in between meetings.?

They think of their job as the thing they do in between meetings.

I see two main problems here:?

1. We’re over relying on meetings and not considering whether all our meetings are truly necessary.
2. We’re not using our meeting time effectively, so our time spent in meetings isn’t productive.

This is especially important to consider in global companies where the workforce is distributed across regions. You might only have a few hours of overlapping working hours — you have to make the most of that time.

We need to stop defaulting to setting a meeting for every little thing.

And we need to use our meeting time effectively so that we have more time to do the real work.?

It’s time to embrace asynchronous work

I believe meetings where people are sharing information to be a complete waste of time. If you only have a few hours of time with your colleagues in another country, why would you waste it talking at them instead of with them??

As I see it, there are three types of meetings worth having:?

1. Connecting as teams and working together to break the back of a hard problem or connect as people.
2. Guiding a workstream or governing a group on an efficient operation cadence.
3. 1:1s to coach and help people talk through things.

If we center our calendar around these formal instances, we will have more time for fluidity, for deep work, or — dare I say it — to think.

But this requires us to lean into modern meeting culture, which includes using asynchronous tools before and after a meeting.

During a meeting, tools like silent writing and dot voting enable clarity when a problem isn't clear — and they help flatten the meeting so the loudest voice doesn’t dominate.?

And we need a clear intention and facilitation plan to ensure the goal is actually met. We need to think through what information we can send before a meeting so people can go into it informed. And we need to send action items and summaries after the meeting to make sure everyone is aligned.?

Before we set meetings, we have to ask ourselves, is this meeting necessary? Could it be an email, document or video??

If it is necessary, is everyone on this meeting required? Does everyone have the information they need to successfully contribute to this meeting? Do they know the role they are expected to play??

We’ve been on a journey to leverage more asynchronous communication like text or voice notes, meeting pre-reads, Loom videos, etc. We’ve encouraged Zappi employees to ask themselves the questions above and to make the most of their meeting time. And we always encourage them to question whether their attendance is really required at a meeting or to ask for an agenda before they accept. It’s become a part of our culture.??

Their time is important. We encourage them to take control of their calendars and prioritize their own time.??

Balancing synchronous and asynchronous

I think balancing synchronous and asynchronous communication is one of the most important things we can be doing to help our businesses run more smoothly and improve the quality of life for our employees.?

No one should be spending their time making perfectly polished, 60-page PowerPoints for an internal audience so that they can then talk at that audience for an hour.

They should be spending their time connecting with people and solving the hard problems.

We’ve seen a lot of unnecessary meetings removed at Zappi, but we’re always looking for ways to improve. Let me know in the comments how you’re eliminating meetings!

If you missed it

Clay Parker Jones, Managing Director of Black Glass Consulting, shared some great tips about getting the most out of meetings on my podcast. Check it out:?