I Hate Meetings

Let me paint this picture for you– it’s 9 AM Monday morning, and you’re scrambling to pull your calendar up to join the team's meeting to prep for the executive meeting where you’ll prepare for that big client meeting coming up next week. What fun!

Most people don’t love meetings they feel are unnecessary. There’s a variety of reasons why your teammates may feel like that, and we’re going to break them down in this episode.

The more efficient you can make your meetings by planning, executing, and including the right people, the more your team will thank you for valuing their time inside and outside of the meeting itself!

In this episode, we break down…

What is a meeting to begin with? What differentiates meetings from regular conversations or interactions?
The specific reasons why people hate meetings, so that we can understand and hopefully constructively change them.
The different types of meetings that there are, how long they typically take, and what’s typically covered in each.
How to effectively organize and execute meetings so that people feel their time is valued and the meeting itself was successful and productive.
The ways that you can actually hold meetings, whether it be remote or in person.

Key Quotes & Conclusions…

“Video conferences increase productivity by 89%.”
“The top 5 reasons why people hate meetings:
- There’s no focus
- There’s too many people in the meeting
- People are arriving late or leaving early
- There are no action items or next steps
- There are no notes being taken”

“Who is facilitating the meeting? You want to make sure that there is a time limit for each topic, so that you’re not running over, people are not getting bored, and you have the right people speaking at the right time.”
“You want to leave room for creativity and questions. I think it’s really important that you leave room for people to create solutions, and also think outside the box and ask questions. How are you actually going to create an environment that facilitates creativity and questions?”
“Reaching consensus doesn’t mean that everybody likes the decision. You may say at the beginning of the meeting, ‘Hey, we need to make a decision on these three things.’ That’s just getting people ready and setting their expectations.”