Too many meetings are exhausting. Too many bad meetings are just plain terrible. Why? It’s what Judy Rees refers to as The Double Doom Loop.
Loop 1 starts with poor experiences in meetings that lead to attendees not coming prepared which results in lack of engagement, and thus lack of achieving the meeting objectives. The second loop starts with too many meeting that have too many attendees which leads to a lack of focus which results in poor meeting experiences. Enter Loop 1 again. Rinse and repeat.
Bad meeting practices cost organizations real money. By some estimates, it’s in the billions or trillions of (US) dollars annually. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are small steps we can take to make a dent.
Meeting Preparation Matters
Let’s start with the first loop of the Double Doom loop. Lack of preparation is a common problem with bad meetings. Whether you’re remote, hybrid or in person, meeting preparation makes the difference between a productive meeting and a bad one.
Things like:
- Taking time to prepare your meeting purpose, objectives and outcomes
- Creating and sharing an agenda in advance of the meeting
- Selecting attendees based on your agenda topics
- Limiting or not inviting attendees that don’t lead to the outcomes of the meeting
- And preparing your participants before the meeting to be productive in the meeting
These can help to improve attendee engagement and create meetings that achieve their stated outcomes. But there’s more you can do to reduce bad meetings. (stay tuned for the next post in this series!)
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