{"id":8643,"date":"2023-08-09T01:45:21","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T01:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/startups\/hate-meetings-youre-probably-doing-them-wrong\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T01:45:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T01:45:23","slug":"hate-meetings-youre-probably-doing-them-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=8643","title":{"rendered":"Hate Meetings? You\u2019re Probably Doing Them Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Sarah Kellogg Neff is CEO of <\/em><em data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/lactationnetwork.com\/\">The Lactation Network<\/em><em>, a national provider of insurance-covered lactation care.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A lot of meetings, as they currently stand, are worthy of our disdain. They can be meandering, hierarchical and ego-filled. Little more than roll-call followed by circuitous posturing.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us contend with workplace meetings. Somehow, despite their prevalence, the rules of engagement in those meetings have largely been left unchallenged.<\/p>\n<p>If you hate meetings, I get it. I\u2019ve been there. Before I became the CEO of The Lactation Network, I spent two decades in and out of government agencies, law firms, startups and marketing boutiques. I felt the rare highs of super creative meetings with all synapses firing, and the all too common lows of terrible meetings where my voice, my time and my presence didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>There are better ways to meet.<\/p>\n<p>But first, we must eliminate the stigmas around why and how we meet the way we do.<\/p>\n<p><fbs-ad position=\"inread\" progressive=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-inread\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\"><\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">Meeting Misunderstandings<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"subhead3-embed color-body bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">1. Important people get invited to meetings.<\/h3>\n<p>Nope: <em>Important work usually happens outside of meetings<\/em>. In fact, sometimes the most \u201cimportant\u201d person isn\u2019t in the meeting at all.<\/p>\n<p>Herein lies a familiar trap\u2014societal and cultural norms related to status and importance. How and when meetings are requested, accepted or run (and by <em>whom<\/em>) trigger a forceful undercurrent related to our worth and value. Yet as CEO of TLN, I encourage people all over our org chart to think critically about whether they need to attend meetings\u2014even if it\u2019s me requesting their time.<\/p>\n<p>Further, my COO and I are rarely in the same physical or virtual room. When she isn\u2019t included on an invitee list, she doesn\u2019t assume she or her skills aren\u2019t wanted. On the contrary, she knows her talents are needed elsewhere as we divide and conquer together.<\/p>\n<p>Meetings become fraught with the subtext of ego when psychological safety is low, and people believe their Zoom square (and the amount of time they can command attention) is directly proportionate to their worth at work. Don\u2019t be the company that perpetuates that sentiment among your employees.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"subhead3-embed color-body bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">2. Good meetings require detailed agendas.<\/h3>\n<p>They don\u2019t, actually. <em>Mindsets are more important than agendas.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Meetings are just a tool. They\u2019re fundamentally flexible, and how we use them matters. We make meetings work for us, not against us, by establishing healthy mindsets around them. Do this by ensuring colleagues have the autonomy to check in regularly about recurring meetings to assess if those meetings are still serving all attendees. Further, establish meeting types to establish meeting purpose. Are you gathering to brainstorm? Have 1:1 touchpoints? Provide project status updates?<\/p>\n<p>Hold fast to meeting purpose over meeting agendas. No amount of agenda items makes up for a meeting that lacks mindset.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"subhead3-embed color-body bg-base font-accent font-size text-align\">3. Meetings can be \u201chacked.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Unfortunately, <em>there is no tip or trick that will transform how your team meets<\/em>. The lift isn\u2019t light, but the payoff is worth it.<\/p>\n<p>In its simplest form, culture is what it feels like to be part of an organization. That\u2019s going to feel a little different for each person in your org, and that\u2019s okay. However, there are some fundamental questions everyone on your team should answer similarly: Do you feel a sense of accomplishment after a day\u2019s work? When you\u2019re signing off on Friday, do you have permission to rest? How do you feel as Monday morning approaches?<\/p>\n<p>Meetings are fascinating in that they\u2019re both a symptom and a cure. If your meetings feel terrible, it means something about your company culture needs attention. By getting curious about what\u2019s off, and investigating each aspect of how you attract, retain (and lose) talent, you\u2019ll discover that shifting how you meet is one way to help cure a languishing company culture.<\/p>\n<p>That said, better meetings aren\u2019t the <em>whole<\/em> cure, and I\u2019m afraid there\u2019s no shortcut through this work. One-offs like adopting the Speedy Meetings setting, launching No Meeting Wednesdays or banishing 18-point meeting agendas won\u2019t get you anywhere if you\u2019re not crystal clear on how you want your colleagues to view themselves and each other.<\/p>\n<p>Once you clarify what it means to be on your team and pull that clarity through every aspect of your team\u2019s experience (including how you meet), you\u2019ll find that your meetings\u2014and your days\u2014suck a whole lot less. You might even start having fun.<\/p>\n<p>Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. <em data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/councils.forbes.com\/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fbc&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links\">Do I qualify?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/forbesbusinesscouncil\/2023\/08\/08\/hate-meetings-youre-probably-doing-them-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Kellogg Neff is CEO of The Lactation Network, a national provider of insurance-covered lactation care. A lot of meetings, as they currently stand, are worthy of our disdain. They can be meandering, hierarchical and ego-filled. Little more than roll-call followed by circuitous posturing. Most of us contend with workplace meetings. Somehow, despite their prevalence, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-startups"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hate Meetings? You\u2019re Probably Doing Them Wrong | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sarah Kellogg Neff is CEO of The Lactation Network, a national provider of insurance-covered lactation care. 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