Helping Meetings NOT suck!

The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance by Steven Rogelberg (Oxford University Press, 2019). Reviewed by Steve Gladis, February 2019.

Overview: Most business meetings suck time, energy and joy out of most of us. In a key survey of workers, “too many meetings” surfaced as the critical time waster cited by 47% of those surveyed. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and Steven Rogelberg tells us how to avoid that by creating fresh, thoughtful agendas, limiting the size and time of meetings, introducing silence to meetings, deflating negativity with positivity and productivity, and a host of tips based on fascinating—even entertaining—research. He introduces readers to terms like social loafing, cultural tax, and huddle meetings. Finally, he offers a raft of tools in the appendix to help navigate and improve team meetings. This book should be required reading for any leader with a pulse!

1.    Why So Many Meetings? We believe that meetings show inclusion, employee buy-in, democratic principles, and empowerment. Also, as organizations flatten, we meet to get input, promote discussion, coordinate and promote synergy. We pay a “cultural tax” (time) for an overly inclusive and learning environment. And yet, “Holding too few meetings robs employees of essential information and feelings of inclusion, support, voice and community.” So, how to maximize their effect?

2.    Meeting Self-Assessment. In self-assessment surveys, leaders overrate themselves—especially as meeting facilitators. In one survey, students were asked to rate both their leadership qualities and their ability to get along—85% rated themselves above the median and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%! In surveys of teachers, drivers, and even prisoners, the results hold true—we’re not good at self-ratings. Bottom line—leaders need meeting and facilitation skills—but these are rarely taught in undergrad or MBA programs.

3.    Meeting Times. Most organizational meetings last 30 or 60 minutes (traditional arbitrary boundaries), resulting in people using all the time allotted instead of leaving when the meeting is actually done. The author recommends shortening the meeting length to add pressure and focus. Some suggestions: Try daily or weekly huddles—standups of 10-15 minutes—to quickly touch base and move on. Start and end meetings on time to not frustrate attendees. Key topics that emerge from shorter meetings might demand meetings of their own.

4.    Agendas Work—Sometimes. The routine weekly agenda is often a copy of last week’s agenda with a new date and with no impact on team effectiveness. Meetings should be called to solve problems, not just to get together. Rather, meetings should address topics like strategy, disseminating important information, evaluating progress, identifying key risks to the company, talent recruitment and retention. Get a list of key topics, then decide on flow. Have a brief warm-up exercise. Next, put weightiest issues first to get the time they deserve. Group similar items to “tell a story” and provide a thread of reference. Also, recognize an employee or team member issue first—to show that their issues matter. End with a wrap-up to address: Meeting takeaways, clarification of assignments, items noted for the next agenda. Also, designate people to “own” an item on the agenda to fix accountability. Include time allotments on agenda items.

5.    Bigger Isn’t Better. The larger the team, the poorer the quality of the team experience, which creates interpersonal aggression, self-centeredness, misuse of resources, and “social loafing” (slacking off and letting someone else take the load). Team research demonstrates a dramatic drop-off in effort as the team size increases. Seven people or less is good for decision making. Up to 15 still works for idea generation—if the leader is a good facilitator. Overall, leaner is better. For decision-focused meetings, attendees should:  1. Have knowledge of issue; 2. Be key decision makers; 3. Need the info discussed; 4. Implement the decision. However, not being invited can cause hurt feelings. Reduce hurt feelings by: 1. Splitting meeting into two sessions to accommodate the numbers; 2. Having people come and go in the meeting; 3. Gathering input before meeting by email; 4. Taking great notes and distributing them widely in the organization with an invite to comment; 5. Using representative voices—invite people to represent a larger stakeholder group.

6.    Habits Rule. We spend 45% of our daily schedule in routine behavior—same place, same time. Also true for meetings. We tend to sit in the same seats—which can limit our engagement. Using a variety of seating arrangements will improve participants’ meeting experience over time. Leave an empty chair to symbolize a key stakeholder, like the customer or supplier. Walking meetings of 2-4 people are a welcome change and people are more creative, energized and engaged. Announce a walking meeting in advance and pick a circular path to regulate time. A standing meeting is another way to get rid of chairs and allow people to interact more. Also, standing meetings take a third less time and people report greater satisfaction with them.

7.    Deflate Negativity. A positive mood that precedes tasks of groups enhances engagement, creativity, sharing of ideas and more. Just a 2-3-minute positive warm-up exercise makes a big difference, acting as a “social lubricant.” Mood matters. Teams that laugh together solve more problems and are rated higher by participants. However, meetings are viewed as disruptions to real work; so, creating separation and transition helps. Greeting people at the door and inviting them in creates a clear separation from work. Early positive comments prime a meeting to be more positive and consensus-building than negative. Limit the use of technology in meetings. Research shows that no one appreciates people texting or writing emails in meetings. Meetings that offer food snacks in general are more positive. Role playing helps—not just being devil’s advocate but also playing a stakeholder role, like the customer.

8.    Silence is Golden. Most meetings are dominated by talkers—60-75% of meetings are dominated by only a few people. Often the best ideas never surface, especially from more introverted folks. What gets in the way in meetings is too much talking, causing social humiliation, social loafing, and production blocking (only so many people can speak in the allotted time). So, what people do is recycle shared information, and unique info never sees the light of day. The secret: Less talk, more silence. Ask people to write down their best ideas on paper—brainwriting. Then ask them to read their individual ideas aloud or post them on the board. Such brainwriting groups produced 42% more original ideas. Whether you pass around index cards or stickies for people to write on or put up large poster boards for people to walk around and write comments, brainwriting opens opportunities and unleashes the brainpower of the group.

The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance by Steven Rogelberg (Oxford University Press, 2019). Reviewed by Steve Gladis, February 2019.

Overview: Most business meetings suck time, energy and joy out of most of us. In a key survey of workers, “too many meetings” surfaced as the critical time waster cited by 47% of those surveyed. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and Steven Rogelberg tells us how to avoid that by creating fresh, thoughtful agendas, limiting the size and time of meetings, introducing silence to meetings, deflating negativity with positivity and productivity, and a host of tips based on fascinating—even entertaining—research. He introduces readers to terms like social loafing, cultural tax, and huddle meetings. Finally, he offers a raft of tools in the appendix to help navigate and improve team meetings. This book should be required reading for any leader with a pulse!

1.    Why So Many Meetings? We believe that meetings show inclusion, employee buy-in, democratic principles, and empowerment. Also, as organizations flatten, we meet to get input, promote discussion, coordinate and promote synergy. We pay a “cultural tax” (time) for an overly inclusive and learning environment. And yet, “Holding too few meetings robs employees of essential information and feelings of inclusion, support, voice and community.” So, how to maximize their effect?

2.    Meeting Self-Assessment. In self-assessment surveys, leaders overrate themselves—especially as meeting facilitators. In one survey, students were asked to rate both their leadership qualities and their ability to get along—85% rated themselves above the median and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%! In surveys of teachers, drivers, and even prisoners, the results hold true—we’re not good at self-ratings. Bottom line—leaders need meeting and facilitation skills—but these are rarely taught in undergrad or MBA programs.

3.    Meeting Times. Most organizational meetings last 30 or 60 minutes (traditional arbitrary boundaries), resulting in people using all the time allotted instead of leaving when the meeting is actually done. The author recommends shortening the meeting length to add pressure and focus. Some suggestions: Try daily or weekly huddles—standups of 10-15 minutes—to quickly touch base and move on. Start and end meetings on time to not frustrate attendees. Key topics that emerge from shorter meetings might demand meetings of their own.

4.    Agendas Work—Sometimes. The routine weekly agenda is often a copy of last week’s agenda with a new date and with no impact on team effectiveness. Meetings should be called to solve problems, not just to get together. Rather, meetings should address topics like strategy, disseminating important information, evaluating progress, identifying key risks to the company, talent recruitment and retention. Get a list of key topics, then decide on flow. Have a brief warm-up exercise. Next, put weightiest issues first to get the time they deserve. Group similar items to “tell a story” and provide a thread of reference. Also, recognize an employee or team member issue first—to show that their issues matter. End with a wrap-up to address: Meeting takeaways, clarification of assignments, items noted for the next agenda. Also, designate people to “own” an item on the agenda to fix accountability. Include time allotments on agenda items.

5.    Bigger Isn’t Better. The larger the team, the poorer the quality of the team experience, which creates interpersonal aggression, self-centeredness, misuse of resources, and “social loafing” (slacking off and letting someone else take the load). Team research demonstrates a dramatic drop-off in effort as the team size increases. Seven people or less is good for decision making. Up to 15 still works for idea generation—if the leader is a good facilitator. Overall, leaner is better. For decision-focused meetings, attendees should:  1. Have knowledge of issue; 2. Be key decision makers; 3. Need the info discussed; 4. Implement the decision. However, not being invited can cause hurt feelings. Reduce hurt feelings by: 1. Splitting meeting into two sessions to accommodate the numbers; 2. Having people come and go in the meeting; 3. Gathering input before meeting by email; 4. Taking great notes and distributing them widely in the organization with an invite to comment; 5. Using representative voices—invite people to represent a larger stakeholder group.

6.    Habits Rule. We spend 45% of our daily schedule in routine behavior—same place, same time. Also true for meetings. We tend to sit in the same seats—which can limit our engagement. Using a variety of seating arrangements will improve participants’ meeting experience over time. Leave an empty chair to symbolize a key stakeholder, like the customer or supplier. Walking meetings of 2-4 people are a welcome change and people are more creative, energized and engaged. Announce a walking meeting in advance and pick a circular path to regulate time. A standing meeting is another way to get rid of chairs and allow people to interact more. Also, standing meetings take a third less time and people report greater satisfaction with them.

7.    Deflate Negativity. A positive mood that precedes tasks of groups enhances engagement, creativity, sharing of ideas and more. Just a 2-3-minute positive warm-up exercise makes a big difference, acting as a “social lubricant.” Mood matters. Teams that laugh together solve more problems and are rated higher by participants. However, meetings are viewed as disruptions to real work; so, creating separation and transition helps. Greeting people at the door and inviting them in creates a clear separation from work. Early positive comments prime a meeting to be more positive and consensus-building than negative. Limit the use of technology in meetings. Research shows that no one appreciates people texting or writing emails in meetings. Meetings that offer food snacks in general are more positive. Role playing helps—not just being devil’s advocate but also playing a stakeholder role, like the customer.

8.    Silence is Golden. Most meetings are dominated by talkers—60-75% of meetings are dominated by only a few people. Often the best ideas never surface, especially from more introverted folks. What gets in the way in meetings is too much talking, causing social humiliation, social loafing, and production blocking (only so many people can speak in the allotted time). So, what people do is recycle shared information, and unique info never sees the light of day. The secret: Less talk, more silence. Ask people to write down their best ideas on paper—brainwriting. Then ask them to read their individual ideas aloud or post them on the board. Such brainwriting groups produced 42% more original ideas. Whether you pass around index cards or stickies for people to write on or put up large poster boards for people to walk around and write comments, brainwriting opens opportunities and unleashes the brainpower of the group.