Saturday 14th January 2023 • Promotional Content
Education, careers & personal development New Year, Fresh Start 41 Innovative thinking
Make 2023 the year you work smarter, not harder. Here are some top workplace hacks to make meetings faster, fun and more productive. Words: Emma Gibbins
Level up your note taking Combine the convenience of note taking on paper with a tech-savvy tablet such as the reMarkable 2. Ideal for those who prefer to write on paper, the tablet converts handwritten jottings into text, turning dishevelled pieces of paper into beautifully presented notes. It also gives you the choice of easily sourcing your fi les on a range of diff erent platforms for more convenient access. “It gives you a separate place for
your notes during meetings, helping you focus and actively engage in discussion, while still being able to write down your thoughts,” says Henrik Gustav Faller, VP communications at reMarkable. “In online meetings, the next distraction is only a tab away. Let the laptop do its job as a conferencing tool and free up your brain for more focused online meetings and better notes.”
Try the ‘Delete a Day’ challenge Cut down wasted meeting time with the help of the ‘Delete a Day’ challenge, suggests Graham Allcott, founder of T ink Productive and co-author of How to Fix Meetings. “When working alongside your
team, ask the question: Wouldn’t it be good to fi nd an extra day in our working week to do the ‘real’ work?
Next, start a meetings amnesty discussion, with questions such as: Which meetings could we just cut? Which meetings could just be an email? Which meetings that are set to be two hours long could actually be an hour? If there’s an hour-long meeting with seven people scheduled to attend, deleting it saves your team seven hours.”
Be alert to the HiPPO Effect T e HiPPO eff ect is a result of the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. No one wants to openly disagree with the boss, yet this often leads to group-think and squashes healthy disagreement. Graham suggests getting around this by asking people to vote fi rst and discuss second, or share their thoughts in groups before feeding back to everyone. “If you realise one day that you’re the HiPPO in the room, give others the fl oor and let them speak before you.”
If there’s an hour-long meeting with seven people scheduled to
attend, deleting it saves your team seven hours
Use breakout rooms Group meetings are convenient for sharing important information with many people, although smaller group settings shouldn’t be overlooked. Zoom’s ‘Breakout rooms’ tool is ideal for encouraging collaboration, especially in large meetings. T e host can create up to 50 diff erent sessions and assign participants to a specifi c group, or randomly divide them. T e host can also join each of the breakout rooms to monitor progress. Once the breakout rooms end, all participants can reconvene to discuss important points.
Open and close your meeting well To encourage others to pay attention and appreciate the diversity of thinkers within the meeting, Graham recommends Nancy Kline’s ‘Opening Rounds’ technique, which gives everyone the chance to share their thoughts before the meeting; while ‘Closing Rounds’ allows topics to be brought to a satisfying conclusion. Meanwhile, Graham is an advocate of asking people their names, how they’re feeling and one thing that’s going well before a meeting starts, encouraging participants to feel valued as equal thinkers. T is ensures meetings begin positively, encouraging an optimistic mindset.
Free up your brain with a note-taking tablet
reMarkable2
Essential reading
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