From Acute Meeting-itis to Smart Meetings

Smart meetings

In meetings there is language and, wherever there is language, there is an opportunity to build, create, empower, transform, add… or there is a chance to destroy, limit and make bad decisions.

Meeting is necessary and there is no doubt that the more collaborative the work, the more meetings there can be. The problem is not meeting: the problem is when meetings are excessive and/or do not generate value.

Much is preached about the efficient management of meetings: removing excess meetings, meetings with agendas, only essential people attending… many organisations have even adopted practices such as meeting-free days or strong digital disconnection policies. I believe that these practices may be necessary but they are not enough! With this, I emphasise two aspects to reflect on:

1) The working system

Meetings are really a symptom of the working system. If there is meeting-itis, there are probably more systemic aspects that are not working well. Instead of trying to eliminate meetings by force, let’s try to improve the working system to achieve smart meetings:

• Reduce bottlenecks and bureaucracy: many meetings are about making decisions that, if we delegate to others, we can eliminate that meeting.
• Improve work tracking, for example by using Kanban: many follow-up meetings could be reduced if we generate asynchronous ways of tracking progress.
• Have clear, cross-cutting objectives: if people connect with the objectives of their work, they will have greater focus. Greater focus can reduce meetings that are disengaged from objectives.
• Limit Work in Progress: if we have many open projects and tasks, there will obviously be more meetings.
• Invest effort in better product definitions and requirements, which makes meetings to clarify doubts of very high value.
• Improve the quality of deliverables: the better the quality, the fewer meetings to discuss defects.
• Etc.

So yes, we can reduce some meetings by ‘freeing up gaps in agendas’; but it is also critical that the meetings that do take place generate value. Because let’s face it: quantity and quality are two different variables. To have higher quality, smart meetings, let’s stand out:

2) Psychological Safety

What is the point of having few meetings if we don’t make good decisions in the spaces we do have? What is the point of a meeting with a clear agenda if people can’t think out loud and give their input? The safe environment is crucial for meetings to really add value, and here are some possible practices:

• The role of the facilitator: with the role of inviting people to think out loud, giving space for reflection, inviting someone to think differently. …. Of course, it also contributes to improving the timebox and other structural aspects.
• Make people feel included: and this is everyone’s responsibility.
• Manage group biases: facilitate individual moments and then share.
• Transmitting trust: making agreements and keeping them.
• Emotional intelligence
• Create mechanisms and rules during the meeting that allow the group to self-organise around the meeting.
• Etc.

Also, psychological safety is not the only component that influences the quality of the meeting, but it is a very good start!

So let’s make better meetings, smart meetings, both in quantity and quality!

–Claudia Salas