0:02

Good morning, This is Laura. Welcome

0:05

to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

0:07

tip is about how to create better

0:10

meetings. Meetings

0:12

are a necessary tool to do many modern

0:15

jobs. Other people know things

0:17

that we don't. These people

0:19

are unlikely to show up at our offices

0:21

unbidden at the exact moment we

0:23

wish to see them. They are unlikely

0:26

to be ready to talk about exactly what we wish

0:28

to discuss, so we schedule

0:31

mutually agreeable times to meet. Hence

0:34

meetings. But like

0:37

email, meetings are a tool

0:39

to do our jobs, they are not the

0:41

job itself. And as I look

0:43

at people's schedules, I see that in many

0:46

cases there are so many meetings

0:48

that they may as well be the job because

0:50

there's no time to do anything else.

0:53

That would be fine if every meeting was the

0:55

best possible use of everyone's time, But

0:59

in an organization with a meeting heavy culture,

1:02

the only way to get people to pay attention to a

1:04

project is to call a meeting.

1:07

So then you wind up with meetings that result

1:09

only in finding out that yep, everyone

1:12

is still doing her job. Well,

1:14

maybe because the meeting has been rescheduled

1:17

twice to accommodate the senior

1:19

person who keeps getting called into other

1:21

meetings. To solve

1:23

that problem of scheduling people,

1:26

create recurring meetings, ones that

1:28

always happened at the same time. That

1:31

seems efficient, but these meetings

1:33

then no longer need to justify their place

1:35

on people's calendars, and there

1:37

can be a lot of them.

1:39

I was giving a speech once where a woman

1:42

stood up to say that she tracked her time

1:44

and studied her calendar and realized

1:46

that before she even got to say over

1:48

her schedule, she was booked into

1:50

one hours of recurring meetings

1:52

per month. That's about twenty

1:55

five hours per week. So

1:57

she worked with her manager and teams and got

1:59

this down to sixty hours per month or

2:01

about fifteen hours per week. This

2:04

was being told as a happy story,

2:06

but fifteen hours before

2:08

you even get to the one off stuff is

2:11

a lot. If

2:13

you waste your own time, that's

2:16

one thing, But a six person

2:18

meeting wasting six people's time

2:21

is far more expensive. Once

2:23

the second is gone, it's gone.

2:27

All the money in the world will never

2:29

buy that time back. But

2:32

I do think there are ways to make meetings

2:34

efficient, effective, and

2:36

even pleasurable. The

2:39

best book I've ever read on this is called

2:41

The Art of Gathering by Priya

2:43

Parker. Parker, who

2:45

plans events for clients, is

2:47

often pulling together multi day retreats,

2:50

but a lot of her advice is smart even

2:53

for your standard Tuesday morning staff meeting.

2:56

The first step in convening people meaningfully,

2:59

she writes, is committing to a bold,

3:01

sharp purpose. Practically,

3:05

this means that something needs to

3:07

change in the world as a result

3:10

of your meeting. Parker

3:12

suggests working backward from a desired

3:14

outcome. This brings focus

3:17

to a meeting. She says, it may

3:19

even help a host decide whether a

3:21

meeting is necessary for that outcome or

3:23

whether an email will do.

3:26

You honor the people at your meeting by

3:28

making sure you're convening them

3:31

for a real reason. Second,

3:34

think about who should be there, and

3:36

just as important, who shouldn't

3:39

be there. Clearly, you aren't

3:41

going to invite someone who will actively sabotage

3:43

your meeting. But people invite

3:45

others all the time just to keep them informed

3:48

or be nice, or to avoid having people feel

3:50

left out. We think it's collegial.

3:53

Here's a thought. Your meeting

3:56

is not the cool kid's table at

3:58

the cafeteria. People

4:00

who aren't fulfilling the purpose of your gathering,

4:02

are detracting from it, even if

4:05

they do nothing to detract from it,

4:07

Parker writes, particularly

4:09

in smaller gatherings, every

4:12

single person affects the dynamic

4:14

of a group. You want

4:16

to make sure that everyone who is in the room

4:19

is participating for every minute

4:21

they are there. If that's not

4:23

the case, the meeting should be shorter

4:26

or have fewer people. Or people

4:28

can come for certain agenda items and then leave.

4:31

A good, tight meeting

4:34

leaves no space for multitasking.

4:38

Third, think about the whole

4:40

flow of the meeting, beginning

4:43

to end. It goes

4:45

without saying that a meeting needs an agenda.

4:48

This means that the host needs to exercise

4:50

benevolent authority to make sure

4:52

the gathering is moving toward its desired outcome.

4:56

Parker also tells people to pay close attention

4:58

to the beginning of a meeting. Often,

5:02

she laments people start gatherings with

5:04

housekeeping and logistics. It

5:06

seems necessary, but you are

5:08

missing an opportunity to sear your

5:11

gatherings purpose into the minds

5:13

of your guests, she writes. She

5:16

suggests thinking about a hotel lobby

5:19

or the first line of a novel. A

5:21

good opening honors

5:24

and awes the people being drawn

5:26

in. Maybe that sounds

5:28

like a bit much for your Tuesday morning staff meeting,

5:31

but you could go around the table and have each

5:33

person share one meaningful thing related

5:36

to the topic at hand. This

5:38

can build trust. Groups

5:40

that trust each other produce better outcomes.

5:44

Endings matter too. Sadly,

5:47

many meetings drag on far too

5:49

long, with people fidgeting and the organizer

5:51

unsure how to wrap things up or

5:54

failing in a different direction. People

5:56

stop precisely at two

5:59

without changing what they've been gathered

6:01

to change in the world, because everyone

6:03

needs to march like middle schoolers to the three

6:05

o'clock class that inevitably follows

6:07

the two o'clock class. You

6:09

want to leave with action items, But I also

6:12

like the idea of ending the meeting with feedback.

6:15

What was good about the meeting, what can

6:17

be changed so future meetings are better. We

6:20

spend so much time in meetings that anything

6:22

done to improve them can have a huge payoff.

6:26

I know all this planning and intention might

6:28

seem like a lot for a meeting, but

6:31

that's the point. You can't

6:33

have fourteen meetings like this each day. But

6:36

that doesn't mean you should lower your standards.

6:39

It means you shouldn't have fourteen

6:41

meetings a day, So look

6:44

over your schedule and figure out

6:46

which meetings should be given loving attention

6:52

and which need to be put out of their misery.

6:56

I promise you'll soon be feeling

6:58

less busy while getting are done.

7:01

In the meantime, this is Laura.

7:04

Thanks for listening, and here's to making

7:06

the most of our time. Hey,

7:14

everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

7:16

You can send me your tips, your questions, or

7:18

anything else. Just connect with

7:20

me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

7:23

at Before Breakfast Pod that's

7:26

b E the number four then

7:28

breakfast p o D. You

7:31

can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

7:33

Podcast at iHeart media dot com

7:36

that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the

7:38

letters. Thanks so much. Should I look

7:40

forward to staying in touch.