Episode 46 | Meaningful Meetings

Welcome to the Better Workday podcast, with your host, Niamh Moynihan. In each episode, Niamh shares new insights and practical ideas to help you create a better workday. Oh-oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh-oh.

 

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Better Workday podcast. How are you doing? In this week's episode, I want to talk about meetings at work, and more importantly, what makes a meeting meaningful.

 

I have to start with a confession. I actually really like meetings. When they're done well, they can help everyone move forward, which is really important. But for me, what's even better than that is it just feels good to make progress with other people. You know? Like, when you're all together and you're trying to figure something out, and it just works, and everyone leaves that room, whether it's physical or virtual, and you just feel good.

 

And yeah, so I love meetings. I love them when they're done well. I think that they're really important in the workplace, whether or not you're in-person, fully remote, or hybrid. And honestly, in worlds of work where we can spend all day buried head-down in tasks, the human connection is so important, and meetings are just one way to do it.

 

But of course, the one thing I don't miss about working in a large company is the volume of meetings that just shouldn't have happened.

 

You know? You hear the thing, "It should have been an email," and I couldn't agree with that more. When I speak to people week after week, whether it's big workshops or small webinars, one of the biggest complaints I hear is meetings that are wasting time.

 

And again, I'm just gonna say it, I was one of the people that scheduled bad meetings. I'm not gonna lie. There was times when I'd schedule a meeting because my manager asked me to get something sorted, so I shoved it into the first available slot that I could, and then I hoped and prayed that nobody could attend because I hadn't time to prepare for it. And now,

 

I know I am not the only one who has been in that situation. I'm just calling it out. But if I had, you know, the ability or the confidence to push back and say no, I probably would've saved everyone their time, their half-an-hour or their hour, and I would've eventually rescheduled that meeting and had a much better session.

 

So, I recently did a YouTube video on my step-by-step for my better meetings framework, and I will link that in the show notes.

 

Today, I kind of want to more talk about what I feel are the key elements to a meaningful meeting. And for me, it's really, really simple.

 

It's understanding, progress, and trust. So, I'm gonna break those down for you a little bit today, and again, you can link, uh, through the show notes to the step-by-step, uh, video if you want more tactical, uh, details.

 

So first of all, understanding. Like, when it comes to meetings, just letting people know, why are they there, Have you ever gone to a meeting and you're going, "I don't know why I'm here.

 

you know? I don't know why I'm here. I was just invited, and my manager said I should attend, so here I am." And when we start like that, well, it's never good, is it? Because if you don't know why you're there, you don't know what you're expected to contribute or what role you're supposed to play, and now everyone is kind of at a disadvantage.

 

So, really, if you're a meeting organizer, getting specific on what you want different attendees to contribute is really, really good.

 

And then if you're an attendee, don't be afraid to ask, you know, "What would you like me to contribute to this meeting?" Or, "What are you expecting me to learn or to bring to this meeting?" Just ask the question.

 

And then throughout the meeting, honestly, it's understanding what other people are saying. I know that sounds really, really simple, but often I feel we cram the agendas so tight that people almost rattle off their part of the meeting, and there's no pause. There's no space for people to double-check and make sure everyone in the room, physical or virtual, understands what's being said or what's being asked.

 

And if we don't create space for that understanding in the meeting, then confusion is sure to follow. And here we've got the email threads back and forth, tasks that aren't done. You know, you know how it goes.

 

the So, I do think that understanding throughout the meeting and creating that space is so important. I know that speedy meetings are really popular, and I love the idea of finishing a meeting five to 10 minutes early so people can take a short break, but I also think that sometimes we make the meetings too short. We try to be too efficient with our time, but we're not being effective in the meeting.

 

Okay? So, think about that. And then, of course, you know, when it comes to the end of the meeting, does everyone understand what the next steps are, and are there any unresolved questions?

 

Are there any questions that, you know, someone said, "I'll get back to that in a minute," and you never came back around? Because again, if you leave a meeting with those unresolved questions, they're going to carry back over, and they're going to have an impact on the work that's meant to come as a result of the meeting and on the next one.

 

So really, I think in order to improve understanding and to make sure everyone's on the p- same page is really just to take a little bit more time and space and intention to make sure the meeting, first of all, has a clear objective, that everyone knows what it is and why they're there, and then throughout the meeting to make sure we have the space to listen and understand, and not just talk and share information, because they're not the same thing.

 

Now, the second part then for me is progress. So, this is so simple. Is the meeting moving work forward?

 

Okay? What are you going to be able to do after the meeting? So, meetings should be able to solve a problem, give approval on something, answer questions, give clarification.

 

There is a purpose to the meeting, and it's usually to get to the next step. So, that's either the next step in your day-to-day tasks or the next step of a project or whatever it is you're working on.

 

And I always ask, "Is the meeting facilitating work or getting in the way of work?"And if you can't answer that, then I suggest that you pause that meeting and think about it, because when we're making progress, of course we're happy to meet with other people. It's great. As I said at the start, you know, we get work done, things move forward, project phases get finished. It's brilliant.

 

But when meetings get in the way of the work, either because it's poorly organized and there's no agenda or the wrong people are in the room, then it's no good.

 

Okay? So again, at the end of the meeting, a quick pulse check. Are we able to make progress as a result of this meeting? Yes or no?

 

And that's gonna show up where you have meetings that maybe need to be looked at. And then for me, number three is trust. And this is huge. And by trust, I mean trust that the follow-up will happen.

 

Again, I am talking about things that are really simple, and I know they're obvious, but so often they get lost.

 

Have you ever been to a meeting and maybe I took on a task and I says, "Yes, I'll do it," and you left going, "I'm not sure she going to do it.

 

I think I'm gonna have to follow-up and keep on her back to make sure that gets done." And maybe the doubt is there because maybe I don't really understand what I'm being asked to do, eh, maybe I said I didn't have capacity and I was convinced to say yes to doing the work anyway, or maybe there's just a poor track record in terms of delivery by my team.

 

Whatever reason it is, when there's a lack of trust in follow-through, then the post-meeting experience isn't going to be great, and even during the meeting, it's going to be all a little bit skeptical, which doesn't create a great culture.

 

And it's the same if you're a manager. If you say you'll do something and your team member doesn't believe you're gonna do it because you haven't followed up in the past or you haven't followed through on what you said you would, it's a waste of time, because they're not going to believe you. And if you don't deliver, the trust is going to be eroded even more, and in order for that trust to be developed and to be sustained, I really think, going back to more recent episodes of the podcast, expectations should be managed. People should be able to push back and say no to taking on a task if they can't deliver on it, and we should stop, you know, wedging work onto people.

 

And again, the understanding piece, if we take the space to fully understand what's being asked accept what we're being asked to do, and

 

I think that really builds trust. And a part of the trust piece as well, I think, is setting up the expectation for the next step. So for example, "I will take on the task," and then me finishing that sentence by saying, "And I'll give you an update by Wednesday of next week," and then holding to that.

 

So sometimes trust needs a little bit of a, a support, and that support is letting everyone know when the follow-up is going to happen by. And, and you know, again, these are small things, but isn't it great though that small things can make a big difference?

 

And usually these actions or these follow-ups are discussed at the end, and so I always say, "A meeting is only as good as its ending." Like, have you ever been in a meeting and it's gone really, really well, and then it comes to, "Okay, so who's gonna do this work?" And it's like tumbleweed. Like, no one is talking because no one wants to put their hand up.

 

So again, go back to the very start what I said in terms of understanding why people are there and what's expected of them. If you clarify that in the beginning, then it results in a better ending of the meeting, okay?

 

And when it comes to meaningful meetings, I always say it's... Look, this is the same, by the way, as if I'm speaking on stage, if I'm delivering a workshop to

 

60 people, to 10 people, to five people. If everyone wants it to go well, it usually goes well.

 

It might not be easy, but it goes well. And what I mean by that is if... I'm sure you've had these meetings where everyone goes into the room, again, physical or online, and says, "Okay, lads, we're gonna do this." Everyone has the right energy brought into the room. You know, they, they want to be successful. They're paying attention. They have their cup of tea or coffee or their glass of water, and they're like, "We're gonna do this."

 

And you might hit roadblocks. You might hit challenges. There might be some tricky things to deal with. But you all want it to go well. And then the opposite is also true.

 

You know, everyone just slugs onto the meeting, and they're half-wishing they didn't have to be there. The energy is on the floor.

 

Well, then the meeting's gonna end up on the floor, So if there's one thing you can do differently right? after today, after listening to this episode, maybe it's looking at how you show up to the meeting. So are you gonna be the one to bring the energy, bring the motivation, bring the positivity? Or are you gonna be the one to bring it down to the floor? I'm sure you're gonna be the former, 'cause you're listening to this podcast, and like me, you love to create a better workday.

 

So look, that's it. That's a quick roundup on my thoughts on what makes a meeting meaningful. I would love to hear your thoughts, if any of this resonates with you, if you agree with anything, if you'd like to add anything.

 

Again, if you want that step-by-step, check out the link in the show notes, and until next time, stay well and have a better workday.

 

Thank you for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Better Workday Podcast is about helping you have a better workday, so we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.

 

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