Meetings that Matter: Rethink your purpose

How many meetings have you been to this week?

I ran an afternoon workshop for one of my learning communities recently where one of the participants was on meeting 8/10 for the day. The day! Bloody hell. I’d rather be taken outside and shot.

When did we stop valuing people’s time and presence?

Also: when did we decide that a meeting was the answer for everything?

I’m all for less content and more connection. But like everything, more of anything isn’t necessarily better. We’ve spent all this time apart over the last month and I’m hopeful that once we start slowly getting back to physical meetings (three cheers for level 3!) we value in-person presence a bit differently.

What do you want of your meeting? A decision, some ideas, or a plan?

If it’s none of those things, do something else – use an email, a typeform, a text or a shared document. Meetings are for communication and collaboration, not for sharing information.

Treating people’s time with respect means making your meetings matter – single purpose, clear process and total presence. (Digby Scott and I had a chat about the way we might value time and presence differently after lockdown in Episode 8 of What’s On Your Mind that you might like to check out too).

Important decisions need leadership. One thing I’m liking about online workshops is the requirement that all meetings have a leader, with the “host” function. I’ve been running strategy meetings for a long time, with a lot of teams and I’m yet to see people self-organise productively!

Meetings that matter don’t happen by accident. If you’ve got important decisions to make and you’re wondering why your “catch-up” isn’t getting anything useful done, it might be worth a re-think about your purpose, process and presence.