3/12/2023 0 Comments Zoom your next meeting soon makePlus, we’re less likely to be distracted by a looming list of tasks. Our focus relaxes, and we can see more opportunities and connect more dots. By contrast, we solve problems best later in the day when our minds are a bit tired. (Depending on your company culture, that might not be strictly necessary, but it’s always polite.)Įven for co-located participants, meeting time can make a difference. Our capacity for creative thinking is the highest right after sleep, so schedule that brainstorming session first thing in the morning. When that can’t be avoided, at least check in with the people who’ll be inconvenienced to get their buy-in in advance. As much as possible, avoid scheduling your meeting during someone else’s lunch hour, or at a time when they’d otherwise be reading their kids a bedtime story. ![]() In our age of globally distributed companies and remote work, a bit of thought around timing is key to effective meeting management. They’ll produce better work, and you’ll have more engaged participants. Let the group know that if someone has work that is so pressing they’d be tempted to multi-task, they have permission to go do that work and catch up on what happened in the meeting later. It’s okay to start the meeting by setting the expectation that everyone is 100% present and focused. Effective meetings keep attendees engaged Don’t skip this! Better to cut a discussion short than to leave loose ends dangling. Include a 5-minute agenda item at the end to capture any open questions or follow-up tasks and assign owners for them. And thanks to Trello boards, Miro boards, and Zoom’s virtual whiteboarding feature, you don’t even need to be in the same room to get it done. Y … all these are situations where holding a meeting is probably the most effective way to collaborate. Project planning, mapping out customer journeys, setting goals, solving a problem, choosing X vs. In the best-case scenario, a meeting’s purpose is to decide or create something collaboratively. Examples include team or project retrospectives, brainstorming, and one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports. If your meeting features a productive discussion that will be more effective in real time than asynchronously via emails or comment threads, then it’ll be worthwhile. They provide a unique chance to hear directly from executives and other decision-makers – and, if they include time for Q&A (which, they should), they get to hear from you. Department and company all-hands meetings are a notable exception. You don’t need a meeting to broadcast information – that’s what email, chat, and company intranets like Confluence are for. First, determine whether you really need a meeting That knee-jerk tendency gets us into trouble and gives meetings a bad name. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that meetings are the one and only way to collaborate. Most of us want fewer meetings on our calendars. ![]() Not only that but the result is then shared with others whose work may be affected. It says nothing about whether the right people were included for the right reasons, or whether the meeting generated any value.Īn effective meeting brings a thoughtfully selected group of people together for a specific purpose, provides a forum for open discussion, and delivers a tangible result: a decision, a plan, a list of great ideas to pursue, a shared understanding of the work ahead. It’s important to distinguish between effective and efficient.Īn efficient meeting starts promptly, stays on track due to good time management, includes as few people as possible, and achieves the stated objective.Įfficiency is a superficial quality. Most of us don’t have formal training in meeting management skills, but anyone can learn to do it well – whether your team is in the office, fully distributed, or hybrid. A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review details something called “meeting recovery syndrome” where attendees lose work time while they mentally recover from a bad meeting. I can hear you nodding from here.) There’s evidence that virtual meetings score even lower.Īnd get this: an ineffective meeting can derail productivity even after it’s over. If I told you that only 50% of meeting time is used effectively, would you believe me? (Don’t answer. Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe
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