I love meetings. But I understand why you might not.<\/p>\n
A friend recently shared a workplace anecdote. One day, she and her colleagues gathered together for a meeting.<\/p>\n
For the first few minutes, they shuffled papers and fumbled with their phones.\u00a0Then they stared at each other.<\/p>\n
Finally, someone said it.<\/p>\n
“Hey, what’s this meeting about?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And no one in the room knew! After 15-20 minutes of griping, they went back to their offices.<\/p>\n
Wow. I told my friend that was\u00a0crazy<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Was it a meeting or an experiment?\u00a0Absurd theater, maybe?<\/p>\n
Waiting for Godot? No Exit?<\/em><\/p>\n
Alas, no. She said this kind of thing happens at her workplace ALL. THE. TIME.<\/p>\n
Sheesh. If that’s the kind of thing that happens “all the time” — no wonder people say they hate meetings.<\/p>\n
If you work in this kind of crazy culture, I get it. Chances are, you can’t fathom how great meetings can be in organization that actually respects time, talent, and teamwork.<\/p>\n
Cultural change is hard, though. You can’t just put up a sign that says “respect my time and talents” and expect it to happen.<\/p>\n
Someone needs to make change happen. Someone needs to set some boundaries.<\/p>\n
And that person? If you hate meetings, it might actually be up to you.<\/p>\n
What if you took one brave step to change your company’s culture? And what if it started with your hatred of meetings?<\/p>\n
Early in my career, I worked for two organizations. They both followed a strict “if no agenda, then no meeting rule.”<\/p>\n
Going to a meeting without an agenda? Unthinkable. For years, I never thought there was any other way.<\/p>\n
No agenda? No meeting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s that simple.\u00a0Don’t go to meetings where you don’t have a written agenda.<\/p>\n
It’s one small rule, but it can start a conversation. It can change the way people in your organization think and talk about meetings.<\/p>\n
Because once you get going on the “no agenda, no meeting” framework, you’ve set a constructive boundary. From this, other positive changes can start happening.<\/p>\n
Meetings, after all, are a team activity. And if you’ve got a team, you need to play positions. (Who’s the leader? Who’s keeping minutes? Who’s following up? Etc.)<\/p>\n
And of course, you make rules. (How long? Where? When? Standing? Sitting? Etc.) And if you have 1) a team that 2) play positions and 3) there are rules, then guess what?<\/p>\n
You have all the basic ingredients for gamification, my friend. You can make your meetings challenging and (gasp) fun.<\/p>\n
Remember: the word “goals” is a sports term. If your meeting has goals, you might have a game in play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For example, you can keep stats on meetings with all the passion you have for keeping stats on your favorite sports teams. (Go, data!) You can define metrics for winning a meeting. (Hurray for innovation!) You can run spirited interdepartmental or by-client competitions. (Yay, team!)<\/p>\n
Bottom line? You can make meetings productive, useful, and fun.<\/p>\n
Adopt the “no agenda, no meeting rule.” You might find you don’t hate meetings so much after all.<\/p>\n
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