Do Now! Could This Meeting Be an Email?
It doesn’t matter where you work, we have far too many meetings. As Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin discuss in this episode of At Work with The Ready, this means that good and necessary meetings are not given the credit and recognition they deserve. So for this week’s Do Now!, take a look at your own meetings or encourage your team leaders and people managers to take a critical eye to their meetings with the following things in mind:
Purpose Over Format: Every meeting should have a clear and distinct purpose. How do the meeting participants know what it is? Is there an agenda? How do you know the meeting is over (just because the meeting is an hour doesn’t mean it has to last an hour)? When was the last time you asked the meeting participants about the effectiveness of the meeting?
Design for the Right People: Not every meeting should be open to everyone. Invite the right people who can contribute to and benefit from it. I often see people invited because “it feels weird” not to invite them or because they have positional power in the organization and we just think it’s a good idea to include them. Think critically about who needs to be there (starting with the purpose of the meeting, i.e. number one in this list, helps).
Pop-Up Rules: Create temporary rules or norms for your meetings that encourage engagement and set the tone for interactions. Many orgs secretly abide by the rule that nothing in a meeting should be a surprise. Really? Why are we meeting then – Couldn’t this just be an email? Your meeting norms should allow for authentic interaction – questions, concerns, innovative ideas – all of which can be tempered by not allowing space for surprise.
(Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (2018))
For more tips and tricks from Priya Parker on the Art of Gathering, click here. For assistance on making this a reality in your organization, book a consultation with PennSquared.
