My imperfect guide to successful meetings
Luca Sartoni
Head of Learning Design and Training @ Wibo | Leadership Development, Management Training. I help ambitious managers like you build confidence, learn tools, and lead successful teams.
Here are three things you should avoid and three things you should do. Try them out. Share your experiences in the comments.
? Don’t run fake meetings
We can effectively transform most of what we label as "meetings" into other options.
? No agenda, no meeting
Every meeting should have an agenda shared upfront so that people can prepare.
? No follow-up actions, no meeting
Use meetings to get everyone on the same page about work. However, work must come after.
? Check-ins
There's no way you can make people focus if they're distracted. However, by understanding the atmosphere in the room, you can adjust your communication style, intensity, and effectiveness.
? Build trust, not fear
If you need to address the distraction as a behavioral issue, do it after the meeting, eventually.
? Keep it tight
Get some basic discipline in your meetings, and wonders will happen.
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Engineering Manager @ DeepL
1 年Most people don't seem to prepare for meetings, either. Besides having no agenda, there's frequently no format or structure. And attendees may or may not come with an agenda of their own (for better or worse). The discussions can end up being more like opportunistic riffing than thoughtful discussion. We work with smart, talented people. Do these kinds of meetings give them a platform to be their best? Even worse when you have so many meetings overall, you don't even have time or energy to properly prepare. The effect is compounded. This is a problem worth thinking about, and solving it has the potential for huge leverage!
Staff Software Engineer at Meta | Writing the "Techlead Mentor" Newsletter (20K+ Subscribers)
1 年A lot of valid points! Though it is ok for some brainstorming meetings with fewer folks to get side tracked. That fosters open discussions instead of someone running the whip to continuously bring it on track. Of course, there needs to be balance.
Consulenza e formazione in leadership aziendale, Membro della Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, Corporate gamification, Esports, employee experience @Outmaster, membro AIDP
1 年Bravo Luca
Founder @ Elevate | I help companies to fix their organisational issues and create better workplaces
1 年It′s a meeting pandemic! People should start calculating the costs of having regular meetings with 10+ people, such a waste of time and money!
We can do it better and faster. I coach Scale-ups CxOs to boost their business with their current team, making minimal changes.
1 年Toxic meeting culture is a pandemic nowadays. However, we all seem to be aware of that. Assuming that most of the people are pretty intelligent and that we all are aware of how poorly managed (or even stupid) sometimes they are (the meetings), what beliefs do you think are preventing us from changing something so actionable?