Mindful meetings
Nowadays who does not have the feeling of being overwhelmed by meetings at work? Please raise your hand! I can see many people all over the world with this problem in common.
Some studies have shown that managers and executives feel between 25% and 50%
time spent in meetings is wasted. Salary.com did a survey and found that in the US, the average American worker only works three days a week, the other two days are considered wasted in unproductive meetings.
When I ask my close group of contacts, peers, colleagues and business associates what is the main complaint of today's new virtual age, most answer the number of meetings we have to attend to which you add the meetings that were established in times of pandemic but are here to stay and have joined the traditional face-to-face meetings.
When we are in a meeting, whether we are on stage or one listening, we play a leadership role. Meetings should be a precious moment to explore, innovate, create, share, participate and motivate others to what I want to convey. So, in a meeting there is a moment of expression of leadership that may or may not help their professional development.
Now I want to give you some refreshing tips to carry out your meetings in a better way. Although I constantly try to improve the meetings that I organize or in which I participate, there are things that I personally experience that work and give a bit of good vibes and good energy. In this post I refer to physical, virtual meetings or hybrids, a new very common way of executing them. So let's look at some of them.
Start with a good detail of the agenda on time, at least a week before it needs to be sent to the participants.
Interact with participants beforehand about what is expected of them during the meeting.
Take a few mindful moments before entering the meeting, it can be done alone or in a group. Just close your eyes and breathe consciously for 2-3 minutes and then you are ready to go.
Invite only the right people who can contribute to your meeting and avoid bringing people alone because they need to know. That is why it is better to prepare a good minute of what happened and then send it.
Make it clear to your mind if it will be an operational briefing or strategy meeting, so you can think in advance who should participate. When meeting online, also be selective about who you have to participate. I see many meetings of hundreds of inactive participants. I can understand that it is a good way to keep everyone informed but at the same time so many sources of invitations will make the person feel overwhelmed.
Also use common sense and ask yourself if you should participate. Is this important to me or can I jump in and get a summary from a colleague later?
During meetings, remember that the best amount of time is a maximum of 50 minutes and then a break for a few minutes to refresh your mind.
If you know how to do it, a mental vacation guiding a couple of breaths with your eyes closed during breaks brings people back on the trail.
Avoid multitasking during the meeting. If we are doing something more than being in the present moment of the meeting, it is as if we were absent. Avoid using your phone or hiding behind your computer answering emails from others who are not participating in the meeting. This also means a lack of respect for whoever is speaking or presenting. Consider that if people during the meeting are fully present with your mind, things can go faster and finish sooner.
Bring joy and positivity in your comments even if they contradict the topic being discussed at that moment. Saying things with a smile is a compassionate way that create a positive atmosphere among the participants.
Come to the meeting well prepared, either because you want to use the time to make your case or because you will be part of it. Preparing and understanding the topics in advance will give you great advantages, if there are previous reading materials prepared, review them before entering so your contribution will be more valuable.
Ending the meeting before time is usually an art and very difficult to achieve, but starting with the end in mind can help, it also means respecting the continuation of other activities of the participants.
Meeting minutes, reports, or just a few bullet points to summarize the meeting can go a long way for the continuation of the topics that have been discussed. With the excess of meetings nowadays, it is a challenge to remember absolutely everything that happened during a particular one, so a supporting material is always a good practice.
The most important meetings in life aren't the ones at work, they're actually the ones back home when you are with your family, children and friends. In work meetings your full attention is very important, but practicing mindful form in your free time and at work, can have a positive contribution to each other and otherwise it can destroy you, your relationships and ultimately your work. Do not underestimate thinking that how we behave in one aspect of our life will not have a direct conscious and unconscious effect on the other.
If you like to comment, I will be happy to read you, you can leave a message here on the blog or on my social networks.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.