MANAGEMENT
LESS FLUFF, MORE STUFF: THE SCIENCE OF PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS
MEETINGS AT THE OFFICE ARE SO PRODUCTIVE AND EFFICIENT, SAID NO EMPLOYEE EVER. SURVEYS SHOW THAT NINE OUT OF 10 WORKERS ADMIT TO DAYDREAMING WHILE SITTING IN MEETINGS, AND 25% OF THE TIME IS SPENT ON IRRELEVANT ISSUES. BUT WHAT IF THERE WAS A WAY TO MAKE THESE MANDATORY HUDDLES MORE MEANINGFUL — AND SHORTER? STEVEN ROGELBERG, A PROFESSOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL SCIENCE, MANAGEMENT AND PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE, HAS SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP MANAGERS DO JUST THAT. HE JOINED THE KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON RADIO SHOW ON SIRIUS XM TO SHARE SOME TIPS FROM HIS NEW BOOK, THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF MEETINGS: HOW YOU CAN LEAD YOUR TEAM TO PEAK PERFORMANCE. AN EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION FOLLOWS.
Knowledge@Wharton: Unproductive meetings have been a topic of discussion for so long, yet it feels like we haven’t fixed the problem. A lot has been written about it. How is this book different?
Steven Rogelberg: I think this book is in a very unique space because it’s leveraging science. For the last 20 years, I’ve been heavily engaged in science around meetings, and other folks have been doing science around meetings and teams. There are evidence-based solutions. These solutions are surprising. I’ll give you a quick example. Every book you pick up about meetings says to have an agenda. Our research shows that having an agenda in and of itself does nothing for meeting effectiveness. It’s a much more nuanced discussion.
Knowledge@Wharton: What are the components of a good meeting?
Rogelberg: There’s a lot. What I try to capture in the book is that’s it’s more of a systemic, holistic perspective. But there are certainly some things that are important, and it truly starts with mindset. To the extent that the leader recognizes that they are fundamentally a steward of others’ time — when they have that perspective, they lead their meeting differently. They think more carefully
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about who needs to be there. They think more carefully about what truly needs to be discussed and in how much time. When you have that mindset and
you facilitate the meeting, you’re not just about featuring your own voice, but you are facilitating the experience so that it’s truly a valuable one. So, that steward mindset is key. Then there’s a host of other things, from managing size and time and things like that.
Knowledge@Wharton: Doesn’t the mindset of the employee also play a role?
Rogelberg: Yes, certainly the employee’s mindset matters. But employees have been beaten down; so much of this rests on the leader fundamentally thinking about meetings differently. By doing so, they’re going to change employee attitudes and opinions about them. But it has to be earned capital. And because leaders have so much of the power of this entire experience, we’ve got to start there.
Knowledge@Wharton: You also bring up the fact that meetings aren’t always necessary to address a particular issue. Can you talk about that?
Rogelberg: That’s one of the things that we find, that so much of meeting
activity is just habits, and these habits just keep perpetuating each week at a particular time. We find leaders engaging in so much agenda rehash. In fact, you could just put a different date on top of the agenda, and you’d see it pop up again. All these habits just keep emerging, and people don’t think critically about, “Hey, maybe this is not a particular topic that needs to be discussed in this meeting. Maybe what I can do is actually send out the information, and then when we meet at kind of a natural time, we designate five minutes to answering any questions about it.” But we tend to err on the side of just holding people captive.
Knowledge@Wharton: A lot of people work remotely and have to meet through video or teleconference. How do you deal with that aspect in creating effective meetings?
Rogelberg: This is such a vexing problem. I have a whole chapter in my book that’s titled, “The Folly of the Remote Meeting.” These meetings are plagued with so much dysfunction, and the skills required to effectively carry out a remote meeting are much more meaningful. Those meeting leaders that can carry these out very much understand that
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