Let’s Set Up a Call!

Let’s Set Up a Call!

The date was Friday, July 5.

Our staff was coming off a half day on July 3 and a day off on July 4. More than 50% of our team was out of the office on July 5 on either a Summer Friday or PTO. My calendar was clear of calls and most of our clients were also off, so my inbox was quiet.

When I say I had what felt like my most productive workday in a year, I’m not exaggerating. 

I cleared a to-do list full of all those tasks that “will only take 10 minutes” to complete, but somehow could never find time for. I finished an evergreen piece of writing I had been struggling to pull together for months. I got myself organized for the upcoming week. And I got a head start working on a comprehensive checklist that is going to become an important resource for my colleagues as the year comes to a close.

At this point, you may have read about the Focus Fridays initiative we started in early 2024, designed to give our team members dedicated time to give attention to deliverables vs. meetings. I won’t dive into that again, but if you missed that post or would like a refresher, you can find it here.

Having this particular day in early July almost entirely to myself also accomplished two other things. First, I felt even more strongly about the benefits of Focus Fridays. And second, it made me want to do a deeper dive into meeting overload, as I was reaping the benefits – in real time – of having a full workday to myself.

Before we get to that, I want to preface by saying I absolutely see the value of meetings and wouldn’t ever suggest moving away from them entirely. Without a doubt, there is a need in business to bring your organization’s minds together for collaboration. It’s imperative to meet with clients to ensure both parties understand the needs of the other. But I do think there’s room to say, “you know what, I think we can all accomplish what we need to on our own, then collect that work at the end to create the final product.”

There were two articles I found particularly helpful when I started to research this topic. The first is “The Psychology Behind Meeting Overload” from Harvard Business Review, which was published in 2021. The other was a pre-pandemic, remote-work-wasn’t-yet-a-“thing” piece on Calendar.com titled “Perfect Amount of Meetings Per Day Backed by Science.”

Now let’s jump in! 

What are the benefits of meeting? 

Meetings force accountability. When you or others are tasked with producing a deliverable in time to present it at a meeting, it’s a powerful prod to ensure the work is done on time.

They also prompt advancement. Setting expectations for particular work to be done ahead of a meeting keeps processes moving in the right direction.

There is no disputing that meetings beget collaboration. It’s great to have dialogue via email or on company platform like Teams, but they’re rarely a match for open conversation during a meeting.

Email fatigue can be just as overwhelming as meeting fatigue. While sometimes it may seem like “this meeting could have been an email,” a clogged inbox can be prohibitive when trying to accomplish a goal. Meetings force people to acknowledge the information in real time. 

What are the disadvantages of meeting? 

One of our Local Wisdom colleagues noted that anytime they have more than four meetings in a single day, it makes it very difficult to slot in the space to actually move forward on deliverables. They said they often feel they need to clear the entire following day to ensure tasks are not bottlenecked.

Are meetings actually beneficial if they’re happening in abundance while actively pulling you away from getting your work done? Unless a great deal of collaborative progress was made during a meeting, I’d argue it may not be the best use of time.

Calendar.com notes a majority of business meetings are considered unproductive, costing tens of billions of dollars annually. They also found these unproductive meetings are cited by employees as their top complaint at work, as well as the biggest time-waster.

Other risks of holding too many meetings – according to Calendar.com’s findings, with many echoed by Harvard Business Review – include: 

• Causing unnecessary stress to employees who are trying to strike the balance between attending every meeting they’re expected to join while simultaneously finishing tasks ahead of their deadlines. 
• Increasing anxiety amongst employees who may fear presenting work in front of their colleagues. 
• Bringing about information overload that can lead to a sense of failure when employees inevitably forget something that was discussed. 
• Forcing multi-tasking, which we discussed the disadvantages of earlier this year. 

Taking these risks even further, Calendar.com points out the connection between mental and physical health shouldn’t be ignored. You may think you’re just adding another meeting or two to your colleague’s calendars, but if it is boosting stress and anxiety, that can lead to decreased productivity, burnout, or even medical problems down the line.  

Why do we feel the need to meet so frequently? 

I’m a big proponent of communication. How can any leader or company expect their people to be in the know without providing them with information? When people aren’t in the loop, they make uninformed decisions about moving forward, which can be a significant waste of time, energy, and resources.

In the workplace, you’re guaranteed to have any number of different personalities and mindsets. Some individuals thrive on collaborative sessions and feel they work best when working with their colleagues, while others may feel the opposite and recognize they are most efficient and effective when given time to focus on independent work. The bulk of employees likely fall somewhere in the middle – enjoying and benefitting from the results that come with open conversation, while also needing some time to devote to deliverables without added discussion.

When your team is made up of individuals who fall into each of these categories – specifically at the opposite ends of the spectrum, it can be hard to know what’s right. Those who initiate meetings may not know the work styles of the team members they’re inviting to calls or may recognize the differences, but feel that meetings are necessary to ensure the more collaborative individuals are able to be productive, often times at the expense of the independent workers.

With the sharp increase in people working remotely over the last several years, it’s also important to factor in that employees can thrive on having casual discussion with their colleagues. Some may view meetings as an opportunity to have that light “water cooler talk” to break up parts of the day in a way that is no longer an option if everyone isn’t sharing an office.

However, we need to be certain that these meetings are still friendly and productive.

What are keys to ensuring the success of meetings? 

• Be deliberate in scheduling meetings. Is gathering everyone actually necessary in order to move a project forward? 
• Don’t involve more people than required. While it is important to hear thoughts from everyone involved, having “too many cooks in the kitchen” can make it difficult to come to a resolution and ultimately work against you. 
• Preparing an agenda that appears in the meeting invite. Doing so allows the creator to take ownership of the meeting, outlining the topics, plans, and goals. Plus, it also gives attendees direction and a means to prepare. Stay on track! 
• Ensure everyone knows ahead of time if they’re expected to have a deliverable ready to present or discuss. It doesn’t make sense to have everyone get together, only to find out 10 minutes into the call that the pre-work hasn’t been completed and another meeting needs to be scheduled. 

How can you be most cognizant of people’s time?

• If a meeting has run its course and all planned conversation has taken place, give people back the remaining time. Just because a meeting is scheduled for longer doesn’t mean the time needs to be filled if the goals and objectives have been met. 
• When planning meetings, take a look at the calendars of others involved. If you see that your colleagues’ schedules are already packed on the day you were targeting, try looking at other dates to see if there’s better availability by pushing the meeting out a day or two. Your colleagues will appreciate you not booking a meeting during their lunch hour because it was the only open slot on a day they already had six other meetings scheduled! Harvard Business Review refers to planning meetings at a time convenient to you, but not others, as “Egocentric Bias”, which leads to “selfish urgency” and others needing to rearrange their schedules to accommodate. 
• If you’ve put a meeting on your colleagues’ calendars and realize the meeting is no longer necessary – whether due to tasks not moving forward quickly enough, the ability to cover updates in an email, etc. – feel free to cancel or reschedule! And the earlier you can do so, the better. 
• Refer to the “Meeting vs. Email Flowchart” created by our friends at Workshop – who also have authored a wonderful blog post on this topic. 

Ultimately, meetings can be very productive if they have a clear and defined goal and are limited to the amount of time actually necessary. Let’s do our best to avoid being the “that meeting could have been an email” meme and take a moment to reflect before we schedule our next call.