Summary
On the agenda for the final programme of the current series is meetings. Virtual or in person, it's difficult to avoid a work meeting. So how do you ensure a good meeting? What should their purpose be, how many people should attend, who should speak and when? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS
Dave Brittain, Business Development Director, Amazon Fashion Europe
Phil Jones, MD Brother UK
Dr. Sarah Woolley, Senior Research Fellow, Warwick Business School
CLIPS
Series 3 Episode 3 W1A
Writer: John Morton
Rob Mayhew Brother Meeting Manifesto Writer: Rob Mayhew
PRODUCTION TEAM
Producer: Julie Ball Editor: China Collins Sound: Rod Farquhar and James Beard Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.3 | Hello, welcome to the programme. |
| 0:07.3 | Now, this week I thought I'd give you an audio clue to the subject under discussion. |
| 0:11.5 | See if you can spot it. |
| 0:13.4 | What it's worth, the mood music at Breakfast with Tony these days, |
| 0:16.3 | this is all about ways of showing that we get it. |
| 0:18.2 | Right. Breakfast with Tony. |
| 0:19.9 | No, I mean, really, these days it's just a matter of a bit of kiwi fruits and frankly, |
| 0:22.6 | some frankly, yes. Yes. Yes, exactly, yes. Right. Sorry, can I just ask, I mean, this probably isn't my... No. But when you say, get it, what exactly? Oh yes, no, brilliant, Lucy. I mean, I might be being stupid. Yes, exactly. No, the fact is this is about establishing what we do most of best and finding fewer ways of doing more of it less, right? Yes. Yes. Brilliant. Yeah, bologues. W1A, it's funny because it's true. And inspired by that and similar experiences that we have all endured, our topic today is meetings, why they fail and how they can be made to work. |
| 0:56.8 | And I have three guests meeting up with us in the studio to talk us through it. I have my own |
| 1:01.9 | agenda. I won't be taking notes. First with us is Sarah Woolley, senior research fellow at Warwick |
| 1:09.2 | Business School and someone who focuses on organisations, |
| 1:13.8 | leadership and the way they interact. |
| 1:15.8 | And Sarah, I just wonder if we can start. |
| 1:18.1 | Meetings covers a range of sins. |
| 1:20.9 | And just give us a sort of vague taxonomy of what the different purposes of meetings are. |
| 1:26.3 | Okay, so as you've highlighted, we use meetings in organisations to help us achieve our goals and purposes. |
| 1:33.9 | And when we've got to do a task that's collective, then that's often when we need to have a meet. |
| 1:38.9 | So we use the meetings to generally problem solve and figure out how's the best way to do a task. |
| 1:45.7 | Like brainstorming in a way, collect. |
| 1:47.6 | So partly brainstorming, but it's also mainly about coordination. |
| 1:51.6 | So we need to coordinate different parts of an organisation. |
... |
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