Section Insights
The Importance of Effective Meetings
Why are meetings often viewed negatively, and how can they be improved?
Meetings are often criticized for being time-consuming and ineffective. However, studies, including one from Google, suggest that meetings, when done correctly, can be beneficial. The speaker emphasizes the need for CEOs and entrepreneurs to develop their meeting skills, as effective meetings can enhance company culture and productivity.
- The average American spends 65 hours per month in meetings, costing billions in payroll.
- Meetings can be effective if structured properly, contrary to common belief.
- Improving meeting skills is essential for CEOs and entrepreneurs.
Meetings and Company Culture
How do meetings influence company culture, especially in remote environments?
In remote workplaces, meetings are often the primary interaction among team members, making them crucial for building company culture. Poorly run meetings can lead to a negative culture, while effective meetings can foster a positive environment. The speaker stresses the importance of taking responsibility for the quality of meetings.
- Meetings are a key component of company culture in remote settings.
- Shoddy meetings lead to a shoddy culture.
- Improving meeting quality is a shared responsibility.
Determining Meeting Necessity
How can one decide who should attend a meeting and for how long?
It's important to evaluate who truly needs to attend a meeting and whether they need to be present for the entire duration. The speaker suggests that not everyone needs to be in every meeting, and sometimes, participants can join only for specific parts. This approach can save time and reduce costs associated with meetings.
- Assess who needs to be in the meeting based on their contribution.
- Participants may only need to attend part of a meeting.
- Reducing unnecessary attendees can save significant costs.
Preparing for Effective Meetings
What steps can be taken to ensure meetings are productive?
Effective meetings require preparation, including reviewing materials beforehand and having a clear agenda. The speaker emphasizes the importance of pre-work and setting outcomes for meetings to ensure that discussions are focused and productive.
- Participants should review materials before meetings.
- Establishing a clear agenda is crucial for productivity.
- Defining outcomes helps guide the meeting's purpose.
Avoiding Reactive Meetings
What are the pitfalls of reactive meetings and how can they be avoided?
Reactive meetings often lack structure and purpose, leading to disorganization and frustration. The speaker shares personal experiences of poorly run meetings and highlights the importance of setting agendas and outcomes to avoid these pitfalls. Asking key questions before scheduling a meeting can help determine its necessity.
- Reactive meetings can lead to disorganization and dissatisfaction.
- Setting clear agendas and outcomes is essential for effective meetings.
- Asking critical questions can help assess the need for a meeting.
Transcript
0:00 what is up in this video what i want to talk about is how to run meetings without wanting to kill yourself so i want to make this video because i've had a lot of discussions recently with ceos about meetings and meeting cadences and should we have meetings should we not have meetings etc etc and i'll tell you this is that i know that the average american spends about 65 hours per month in meetings this is just
0:25 the average working person this isn't even an executive and so if you look at america as a whole we spend about 30 billion dollars a year in payroll on meetings it's freaking insane however there's a lot of people that have come to say that meetings are not necessary that meetings take up too much time that meetings are ineffective well i trust google and google did a study on its own business and essentially came out with the
0:48 understanding that meetings in doses are better than not having meetings i happen to subscribe to that because i have run a company where i didn't have meetings i've also run a company where i had too many meetings and i've also run a company where i had the right meetings and so i just want to share what i've learned because i think that a lot of people believe that they shouldn't work on the skilled meetings it's not something most ceos even think
1:12 about they don't think oh i should work at the skill of meetings especially nowadays like if you're a virtual or an online entrepreneur you're probably not thinking how i can run the best meetings right that's a lot of like oh that seems corporate whatever whatever but the reality is is that it's not corporate it's freaking smart and corporate is around and stays around for a long time for a reason sometimes those reasons are things that we should look at and one of
1:33 those is that they're really good at running meetings at times okay i'm not talking about every company but i've been in corporate settings where it is very obvious they are skilled at running meetings what i want to share is how to run meetings effectively and you do that by asking yourself five questions when you're deciding if you should have a meeting or not okay the way that i would think about meetings if i were you and
1:54 what i think about meetings is this especially if you're a virtual workplace right you're all remote or you're half remote even which many of us are at this time i've never had an in-person company i've worked in in-person companies but i've always had remote companies then the meetings are the most time you spend with other people on the team so what a lot of people say is well i just want to spend more time focusing on
2:13 the culture i don't really want to think about the meetings and i'm like what the actual your culture is literally built from your meetings because that's the only time you spend with people like let's be real the time you spend with people is on those meetings so that is what creates your culture so if you have shitty meetings you have a shitty culture that's why i actually think that if you want to create your culture have good meetings is that simple
2:35 because it is a skill it is one that can be learned and to say that you don't like meetings that meetings are a waste of time no it's that you're not good at them therefore they're a waste of time and so i think that we need to start taking a little more responsibility when it comes to that every time that i'm on a meeting and i don't like it i'm like what am i not doing right what am i
2:51 not saying right what did i not do well to prepare for this meeting right and it usually comes down to the fact that i didn't ask one of these six questions when you're thinking about running a successful meeting the first thing that you want to ask yourself is who really needs to attend this meeting and when you ask that question i want you to think who's actually going to speak in this meeting whose opinion do i
3:12 actually want it's not who do i want to loop in you can loop people in via an email or slap you don't loot people in for a meeting you don't have a meeting to status update people you have a meeting to make decisions and drive an outcome and so this took me a long time to get the first two years of business i don't think i got it and then when i did i was like oh my god i've wasted so much
3:33 freaking time and payroll on meetings and so it's really thinking who is actually going to contribute to the conversation to be had here that's the first one the second one that you have to consider as the ceo is do you need to attend the meeting there are often times where i'm like a meeting is missing it is not one that i need to attend so the meeting might be between two departments the meeting might be between
3:56 some of the leaders i have the meeting might be between a vendor and somebody else on my team i can coordinate the meeting doesn't mean i need to be there or you could even go further and say do i need to attend the entire meeting right like sometimes what i'll do is i'll hop on i'll introduce i'll explain what i want the outcome to be and i'll hop right off right that's often when i don't attend
4:18 the entire meeting is because of that that's what i'm doing for that meeting or per se it's like a company meeting i might only come in when i'm talking to that company meeting not for the entire rest of the meeting where it's just the same as it was in the meeting prior that i was already in that's the second question right do you need to attend and do you need to attend the whole thing right so this can also go for the
4:38 participants if you're coordinating a meeting you're thinking who needs to be on there who's going to contribute to the conversation then maybe they only need to be on half of it maybe they only need to be in the beginning or the end or whatever right but maybe that person doesn't need to be in the whole meeting and so if you can save time that would be fantastic because i looked at the average cost of a meeting in my company and for four
4:57 people all at different levels combined the average cost of a one hour meeting was 300 for me in payroll and so when i'm thinking about who i want in the meeting it's important because imagine if you have 10 people on a meeting that's like a thousand dollars gone like that it could have been an email you could have saved a thousand dollars because a lot of people they're hosting these 10 or 15 people meetings just to give a
5:19 freaking update you don't need to do that though right and sometimes you don't even need to be there you just need to set the agenda and let it go the fourth question is who's going to be responsible for the pre-work for meetings so i'll give you an example of this right a lot of people do weekly meetings you might do weekly meetings which is you get departments together you get the company together and you go over things
5:38 in the meeting basically it's like a review of last week going forward this week etc so what i've done over the last six years is basically refine this weekly meeting to be we are expected if we attend that meeting to review a slide deck ahead of time that slide deck is prepared prepared by my finance department the week prior it's sent out on friday monday is when the meeting occurs you are meant you are required to review
6:05 that over the weekend before you come into the meeting and then the meeting is to discuss things and the discussion items are added ahead of time so when we go in the meeting there's not reviewing of any information we're not relaying anything we're not nothing none of that at all okay it's not status updates we are all expected because we're all adults to have reviewed it ahead of time so that is what i mean i say who's going
6:28 to do the pre-work for the meeting if you're getting on a meeting especially when it's like an hour long you need to have an agenda set ahead of time okay so that goes into the last question which is what is the outcome of the meeting okay and so a really good practice for this that helped me get in the groove of learning to set outcomes for meetings was when i was onboarding people so anytime i onboard someone i want to
6:51 introduce them to different people in the company and so i want them to face-to-face interaction because i think it builds trust faster than them just being on slack and just seeing them at the next quarterly meetup and so what i always make sure to do is say that i want to drive the outcome of that interaction after that person which might be i need you to explain x x and x i need you to share x x and x or it
7:12 might be i just want you to build trust right whatever it may be the outcome of the meeting needs to be there and so if you're calling an ad hoc meeting and it's not one that's regularly scheduled i think that a lot of times people are actually doing that in this frantic state we need to yeah there's a problem meeting let's do a meeting let's do a meeting tomorrow two hours yeah two hours yeah at seven o'clock let's go and
7:33 you're like what and the whole staffs look at you and they're like oh my god again like they're so reactive this isn't a big deal this isn't a problem why are we doing a whole meeting with the whole team over this right and that's when you have to really ask yourself am i actually driving an outcome with this meeting and a lot of times that's what you see is just super reactive let's put a big meeting
7:52 on the books not paying attention to who's on there no preset agenda nothing to review ahead of time then we get on and super disorganized and we usually feel worse after right we might get something by the very end but it really wasn't as productive as it could have been and so i have had my fair share of those meetings where they're absolutely freaking terrible okay back in the day i remember there was a meeting that i
8:12 hosted and i didn't understand why i was like why is nobody talking why is there we contributing this we were trying to essentially build a new strategy and i was like why am i the only one talking i'm so frustrated that was when i was like okay it's my fault i realized that i didn't set the agenda for the meeting i didn't have an outcome for the meeting i didn't even give anyone information about what the meeting was about they
8:33 barely even know so how could i expect more from them than i would for myself i think that if you ask those questions right who really needs to attend the meeting do you need to attend the meeting do you need to attend the whole meeting who's going to set the pre-work for the meeting and then who what is the outcome of the meeting if you ask those questions your meeting is going to be good if you can ask those
8:53 and answer them with reasonable points if not then the answer is probably that you don't need a meeting you need to do something else or maybe you have a discussion with just one person next time or even looking at into next week when you're planning meetings or looking at what's on your calendar think about it look at them do they have outcomes what are they there for why are you talking to these people reasonable questions to ask when you're
9:15 dedicating a lot of time and resources okay so ask yourself those questions review your calendar for the next few weeks let me know what you think if you want more videos like this go ahead hit subscribe and i will see you on the next one
Summary
- The average American spends 65 hours per month in meetings, costing businesses about $30 billion annually in payroll.
- Meetings can be beneficial when structured properly, as supported by a Google study.
- Effective meetings require careful consideration of who needs to attend and whether the organizer should be present for the entire duration.
- Pre-meeting preparation is crucial; attendees should review materials beforehand to maximize productivity.
- Establishing clear outcomes for meetings helps maintain focus and drive results.
- Poorly organized meetings can lead to wasted time and resources, negatively impacting company culture.
- Asking key questions about meeting necessity can help streamline processes and improve efficiency.
Questions Answered
Why are meetings often viewed negatively, and how can they be improved?
Meetings are often criticized for being time-consuming and ineffective. However, studies, including one from Google, suggest that meetings, when done correctly, can be beneficial. The speaker emphasizes the need for CEOs and entrepreneurs to develop their meeting skills, as effective meetings can enhance company culture and productivity.
How do meetings influence company culture, especially in remote environments?
In remote workplaces, meetings are often the primary interaction among team members, making them crucial for building company culture. Poorly run meetings can lead to a negative culture, while effective meetings can foster a positive environment. The speaker stresses the importance of taking responsibility for the quality of meetings.
How can one decide who should attend a meeting and for how long?
It's important to evaluate who truly needs to attend a meeting and whether they need to be present for the entire duration. The speaker suggests that not everyone needs to be in every meeting, and sometimes, participants can join only for specific parts. This approach can save time and reduce costs associated with meetings.
What steps can be taken to ensure meetings are productive?
Effective meetings require preparation, including reviewing materials beforehand and having a clear agenda. The speaker emphasizes the importance of pre-work and setting outcomes for meetings to ensure that discussions are focused and productive.
What are the pitfalls of reactive meetings and how can they be avoided?
Reactive meetings often lack structure and purpose, leading to disorganization and frustration. The speaker shares personal experiences of poorly run meetings and highlights the importance of setting agendas and outcomes to avoid these pitfalls. Asking key questions before scheduling a meeting can help determine its necessity.