5 tips for dealing with meeting overload The Way We Work a TED series
Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier
Reviewer:
Have you ever reached the end
of what feels like a grueling workday
only to realize you didn’t actually
accomplish anything?
That it was just meeting after meeting
after meeting after meeting
after meeting –
[The Way We Work]
(Music)
As a recovering corporate executive,
I know we all feel
like our time isn’t our own,
like other people
are controlling our calendars
and we’re simply reacting to their whims.
But calendar creep isn’t inevitable.
There’s so much in the world
we can’t control.
We can’t control our senior leaders,
we can’t control our customer demands,
and we certainly can’t control
a global pandemic.
But we can actually control our time,
we’ve just forgotten how to do it.
I’ve come up with five,
easy-to-implement steps
that can take your calendar
from working against you
to working for you.
And they really work.
We worked with a big global company
and asked some of their leaders
to put these tips into practice
while others didn’t.
And guess what?
The leaders who used these steps
saw significant hours open up
on their calendars
for, you know, actual work.
Tip number one:
Ask yourself, “Do you really
need the meeting?”
We’re under the illusion that we need
a meeting for everything.
We think “I need to make sure
so-and-so is OK with this
so I’ll book time.”
Or “I’ve got a quick question
on process, I’ll grab a meeting.”
The reality is for almost half
of the meetings we schedule,
we could simply pick up the phone
or shoot a text for a quick answer.
A trick to stop this:
when you’re thinking of calling a meeting,
write the invitation first.
And if you can’t start with a subject line
with an action verb,
you shouldn’t have the meeting.
“Decide, finalize, create next steps.”
Those are reasons to call a meeting.
“Review,” on the other hand,
isn’t an action verb.
If you’re calling a meeting
to review something,
send it out ahead of time
and schedule a 15-minute
meeting for questions.
That should get Joe
to finally read the deck.
Related to that action verb,
if you’re going to call a meeting
you should be able to create
a clear purpose statement.
“In this meeting we’re going to decide
boom, boom, boom.
Come prepared.”
You don’t need a whole agenda;
nobody’s going to read it anyway.
But that purpose statement
is enough so that when you start,
everybody is sitting up, paying attention
and focused on the goal.
Tip number two:
invite the least number
of people possible.
Let’s be honest,
most of us invite people
to meetings defensively.
We know that Raco’s the one we need
but if Dion doesn’t feel
like he’s involved,
he’s going to be cranky,
so you invite him
and then Shannon and then Jane.
And now we’re wasting
all of these people’s time
instead of just going
directly to the decision maker.
It’s time to let go
of those grade-school fears
and just invite the people
who are necessary for the objective.
Everyone else can be informed later.
Let’s also agree it’s OK
if we’re not invited to everything.
Research has found that the optimal size
of a decision-making meeting
is around five to eight people.
Any time you’re inviting more,
you’re making it less likely
you’ll achieve your goal.
Tip number three:
make your meetings shorter.
If you want your time back,
ditch the hour-long meeting.
I schedule 30- and 45-minute meetings.
That’s it, period.
Full stop.
That gives people time to digest,
figure out next steps,
then take a breath
and maybe, I don’t know,
go to the bathroom.
It stops that horrible
snowball of lateness
that rolls downhill
over the course of a day.
Tip number four:
say no to other’s people’s meetings.
We’re in the habit of saying yes
to every meeting we’re invited to.
Often we show up out of fear
of missing out, or worse yet, ego.
Neither of those is a reason
to spend your precious time in a meeting.
A better way to decide:
Ask yourself, “Is my opinion absolutely
vital to the purpose of this meeting?”
Even better, “Does this meeting
move my goals,
my team’s goals
or my customers’ goals forward?”
If not, just say no.
Now I know what you’re thinking:
it’s hard to say no to a meeting.
But it really isn’t.
Simply tell the organizer the truth.
You know that they’ve got this,
and if they need you,
simply give you a ring.
You can also use the opportunity
to delegate the meeting
to a high performer
or subject matter expert
who may be a better choice anyway.
You can even simply let them know
you have other priorities that week
and ask if your attendance is necessary.
All you need to do is communicate
with honesty and clarity.
Tip number five:
be ruthless with your time.
As any flight attendant will tell you,
you have to put
your own oxygen mask on first.
It’s the only way
you can be at your best for others,
so give yourself time
to do the things you need to
in order to feel like a human being.
That includes scheduling
blocks of uninterrupted time
to focus on your own work.
If you have a project
that going to take you 10 hours
of really focused time and effort,
schedule that time in your calendar.
Try putting in “no-fly zones”
two hours a day,
a few days a week,
at whatever time
you’re at your most productive.
You don’t have to make
these changes in a vacuum,
like it’s some kind of secret.
You can tell people
that you’re trying something new
and taking control of your calendar.
And you do not have to do
everything at once.
Simply pick one idea and try it.
People will not only understand it,
but they’ll appreciate it.
So the only question left is:
Do you have the courage
to own your own calendar?
I think you do.