Why Meetings Go Wrong (And How to Fix Them)

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steven Rogelberg, a professor at UNC Charlotte, has spent decades researching workplace meetings and reports that many of them are a waste of time. Why? Because the vast majority of managers aren't trained in or reviewed on effective meeting management. He explains how leaders can improve meetings -- for example, by welcoming attendees as if they were party guests or banning use of the mute button on conference calls -- and how organizations can support these efforts with better practices and policies, from creating meeting-free days to appointing a Chief Meeting Officer. Rogelberg is the author of the book "The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance" and the HBR article "Why Your Meetings Stink -- And What To Do About It."

Transcript

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0:00.0	When leadership advice feels like buzzwords and platitudes, it's time to get real.
0:05.9	HPR's podcast Coaching Real Leaders brings you behind closed doors as Muriel Wilkins coaches anonymous
0:11.9	leaders through raw honest career questions
0:14.6	that we all face.
0:15.9	Listen and follow coaching real leaders for free
0:18.3	wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard. How many meetings will you attend today? This week, this year? How much of your time do you spend gathered around a conference table with colleagues
0:53.2	looking at plans or presentations or pianos. Our guest today estimates that in the
0:58.6	U.S alone organizations play host to 55 million meetings per day.
1:04.0	Ugh!
1:05.0	Why do I say, Ugh?
1:07.0	Don't we get important work done in meetings?
1:09.0	Aren't they a good use of our time?
1:11.0	Research says not really. Apparently 30 to 40 percent of the
1:15.3	hours we spend in meetings aren't productive. 73 percent of people admit to doing
1:19.8	other work during meetings, 90 percent report daydreaming, and 64 to 65% of managers say
1:26.3	meetings keep them from work and deep thinking.
1:29.9	Should we just accept that a lot of meetings will be boring and wasteful?
1:33.2	Or are there ways to avoid bad meetings?
1:35.3	Plan good ones and get more out of the whole process.
1:39.0	Stephen Rolgelberg is a professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He's the author of the book
1:43.9	The Surprising Science of Meetings, how you can lead your team to peak performance and
1:48.3	the HBR article, Why Your Meeting Stink and What to Do About It. Stephen, thanks so much for being on the show.
	...

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