Despite all of the pandemic agility, most workplaces are still wasting time and energy in long, rudderless meetings, or relentless 'back to backs'.
Leaders can easily change this for the better, by explicitly giving people the permission and direction to do meetings differently (and doing the same for themselves).
By agreeing some simple protocols with your teams, you can stop the meeting madness in its tracks. It's a quick and collaborative way of boosting effectiveness, productivity and energy.
Just one small change could make a big difference to your business and your employee experience, for example:
- Change the default length (i.e. 30 mins instead of 60)
- Introduce regular team 'stand ups' instead (10 - 15 mins)
- Have a meeting free day, or times of day to enable flow
- Agree that its ok not to invite people to meetings just to be polite
- Agree that people can leave a meeting if they don't need to be there
- Include the purpose or brief agenda in the calendar invite
- Ban 'back to backs' - mandate at least 10 mins between (make them 50 mins long if nothing else)
- Use software as a visual guide, or to track actions and timeframes (e.g. Trello/Asana/Monday)
- Deal with the comms via phone, email or other messaging services if possible
- Do some training on how to facilitate great group meetings
**Which one of the above resonates for you? What else?**
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