How to waste less time in meetings

Plus a few digs at group word-smithing, one of my least favourite activities

Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad you are here.

Years ago, a student gave me a ribbon that reads, "I survived another meeting that could have been an email." I still have it, and occasionally I wonder about its accuracy. I think I need some companion ribbons: "I survived ten confusing emails that could have been an eight-minute meeting." Or, "I survived a meeting that could have functioned successfully without me."

Academics love to complain about meetings. I get this. Workloads are high. Academia is a stressful industry these days. Add to this meetings that are somehow both boring and stressful, scheduled exactly in your peak productivity hours, and, understandably, meetings can create resentment.

But meetings are important and necessary. Well-designed meetings can be positive and impactful. Meetings help us understand each other, build things together, and foster shared cultures. Meetings can bring us together not just physically but also as team members and colleagues.

Meetings are not the problem. Purposeless meetings are the problem. And that's what today's small thing to try immediately is about.

Image source: Unsplash

One Small Thing to Try Immediately: Use purpose to structure your meetings

I generally avoid starting questions with ‘why’; it can make people defensive, and risks triggering unwanted Backstreet Boys earworms. But if you can’t answer the question “why are we meeting?” satisfactorily, there is a risk that you are about to engage in a purposeless meeting. (No, “we have department meetings once a month” is not a satisfactory reason to meet.)

All meetings need a clear purpose. In her book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, Priya Parker writes, "Having a purpose simply means knowing why you're gathering and doing your participants the honor of being convened for a reason." Clear purpose shows respect for everyone’s time and creates focus.

Assuming that you are the meeting chair, here are some steps you can take to create more purposeful meetings. And if you are not the chair, I have some ideas for you as well.

1. Define the meeting's purpose. Imagine if every meeting started like a wedding: “We are gathered here today to…” How do we end that sentence? We are gathered here today to finalize the scholarship list. We are gathered here today to brainstorm curriculum changes. We are gathered here today to … do what exactly?

Knowing what a meeting seeks to accomplish is foundational. There are many good reasons for meetings in academia. In my opinion, these tend to include (list in no particular order and not exhaustive):

• collective problem-solving

• collective decision-making

• formal governance

• brainstorming and discussion

• connection and relationship-building

• collaborative planning and codesign.

There are also less good reasons for meetings in academia. In my experience, these include (list also not in particular order or exhaustive):

• most information sharing (seriously, just send an email)

• most accountability/updating (get ye to Asana!)

• group word-smithing of documents (oh dear god, never, kill me now).

Write down the purpose of the meeting. If that purpose justifies the effort and time to bring people together, move to step two. If you determine that a meeting is not needed, cancel it now!

2. Use the meeting’s purpose to identify meeting participants. Many meetings are too big. Either due to a fear of leaving people out or an unwillingness to be thoughtful about who needs to be in the room, we invite people who aren't necessary for the meeting. And many people feel a sense of duty to show up, even if they aren't truly needed. The result is wasted time, both in scheduling (as we try to accommodate seventeen different calendars) and at the meeting itself. This costs our institutions money in terms of salaried time that could be better directed elsewhere. (A former student created a meeting cost calculator for the Canadian federal government. Surely every university would benefit from its own version.)

When organizing a meeting, ask yourself who truly needs to be present. Be thoughtful before extending invitations beyond this core group. Parker writes about "the kindness of exclusion.” I like this phrasing as it shows respect for people’s time. She also writes that "thoughtful exclusion, in addition to being generous, can be defining. It can help with the important task of communicating to guests what a gathering is."

The tricky part of this is representation. The only people who need to be present may all be very similar in demographics, perspectives, or some other manner. And at the same time, expecting colleagues from underrepresented groups to be present at all meetings creates an unfair burden. Consider finding a balance that feels appropriate to your meeting purpose. Perhaps certain people are only needed for a small part of the meeting. Perhaps others simply need to be provided with the meeting notes.

3. Use the meeting’s purpose to structure the agenda. Parker writes, "once you have [a gathering’s] purpose in mind, you will suddenly find it easier to make all of the decisions that a gathering requires." This includes the agenda and possibly the meeting space.

Some examples can help make this point. Meetings intended to foster ideation (e.g., problem-solving, co-design) require time and space for creativity and generativity. These agendas should include activities such as breakout groups, structured brainstorming (see “How to wear all of the hats for better decision-making” for one approach), or facilitated discussion using a whiteboard to capture ideas. Meetings intended to promote connection (e.g., team building) require time and space for interaction and engagement. These agendas should include strategies to mix groups and opportunities for interpersonal connection, and ideally involve food.

We have all experienced meetings where the purpose and the meeting agenda do not align. There is the meeting in which the (alleged) purpose is to receive feedback, but the presenter uses all of the allocated time to share information, with no time for meaningful discussion. There is the retreat that is (allegedly) intended to foster team-building at which groups do not have scheduled opportunities to interact. These meetings are painful. Don’t create them.

4. Provide advance materials to allow people to engage purposefully. Ensure that all participants have the agenda and materials in sufficient time before the meeting to prepare properly. Be explicit about the purpose of the meeting and with your directions for the advance materials. (For example, “The purpose of this meeting is to decide our scholarship allocations. Before the meeting, review the files in the shared drive. Come to the meeting with a clear ranking of all candidates.”)

In pulling this together, you may discover that the work can be done asynchronously. Cool. Give people the gift of time and cancel the meeting. Or you may realize that some people originally invited are not necessary. Cool. Give them the gift of time and let them know that their attendance is optional.

A note for when you are not the meeting chair. The above points covered how to hold fewer (ideally no) purposeless meetings. But how can you reduce the number of purposeless meetings that you attend? Here are some ideas:

• Regularly review your upcoming schedule to check for meetings that you do not need to attend (see “How to invest an hour now to make next week a bit easier”). If you are unsure whether you are necessary for a meeting and you feel safe doing so, ask the meeting chair to clarify how they see you contributing to the meeting.

• Review the advance meeting materials carefully. If needed and you feel safe doing so, ask the meeting chair to clarify the meeting's purpose before the meeting so you can prepare to engage meaningfully.

• Use positive, specific feedback to the chair to reinforce purposeful meetings. For example, "I appreciated the opportunity for a fulsome discussion on our curriculum. Thank you for ensuring that the agenda included time to do so." Or, “Thanks for sending the materials in advance with clear instructions for how we could prepare. I liked how we were able to use the time effectively to get to a decision.”

• If you feel it is safe to do so, use constructive suggestions to the chair to move towards more purposeful meetings. For example, “I would love to hear how others feel about the curriculum renewal ideas. At our next meeting, can we have time set aside for this?”

Purposeful meetings are important. They can also be a source of work satisfaction. I enjoy collaborating, sharing ideas, and learning from others. I love moving things forward. I respect the need for formal meetings that approve or review items that have gone through earlier processes.

And all that being said, some meetings truly should just be emails.

Until next time…

What kinds of meetings do you consider a good use of your time? What kinds make you want to scream? Please let me know in the comments below. And if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, please check out my column on why fostering the connection between writing and thinking is critical to teaching.

Stay well, my colleagues.

P.S. I resisted the temptation to tell the story about the time I was on a bylaws committee that was engaged in significant revisions. I will skip the details, because they are deadly boring, but trust me when I say that word-smithing in a group of ten-plus people is a painful experience! (Fact: some people care about commas and semi-colons a LOT. Another fact: I am not one of them.)

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