Seen.
Pleased to meet you?
We're nerdy about meetings. How many, how often, about what and with who. It sets the tempo.
We are also nerdy about rules about meetings, like making sure they always start on time and finish on time and that every meeting has a purpose, outcomes and agenda.
Maybe it's because we've experienced so many bad meetings. We've probably been responsible for one or two as well.
This week though, we met a fast growing and successful business whose meeting structure surprised us. They had only one formal meeting per week across the whole company.
The impact was surprising. They had no choice but to give real responsibility and trust each other, because there was no option for decisions to get stuck in endless sequences of meetings. It empowered people.
People had to be more thoughtful too. If you needed to consult someone or have their approval, you had to talk to them. People learned to think for themselves about who they needed to speak with, rather waiting for the right meeting.
We're curious about how long this will last for them, and whether they will need more meetings as they grow. But it made us wonder - if you had to run your business on only one meeting per week, could you do it?
Would it change your culture and performance?
Read.
We've seen a lot of businesses move their usual meetings and communication to online equivalents.
This article from inc.com makes a case that this may be A Bad Thing.
We recognised that when we're remote we feel more pressure to respond straight away to Slack messages, WhatsApps and whatever else is pinging. We want to give colleagues a sense we are at our desks.
We all know that interruptions reduce productivity. So given the pressure many people are under at the moment, is this a recipe for working longer hours, getting less done, and making everyone stressed?
For remote working to work, and to protect well being, it seems sensible to re-look at company meetings and communication habits when they move from physical to remote.
Learned.
Discount me in
How do you react when people say:
“I’m not sure about this but...”
“I don’t really know but...”
“This is probably going to sound ridiculous but…”
This language can make us think someone isn't worth listening to, because they're not confident. It can sometimes be mistaken for self-discounting - apologising for what you're saying to deny responsibility.
Our learn this week is to think differently.
Maybe you're hearing these words in your business because people feel speaking out is risky. Maybe they just have a different and more gentle style.
Moving beyond how people express themselves, and being curious about what they are trying to say, can encourage people to say more. They may bring up ideas that are not quite formed, or unconventional, but that are innovative. Combined with ensuring equal talk time in meetings, and avoiding HIPPO syndrome (always going with the HIghest Paid Persons Opinion) we felt this could be part of making your culture more inclusive. Inclusive cultures make better decisions, and this means more profitable businesses.
What would it be like to use these words as a prompt to listen more, not less?
And finally.
Alex collects quotes. This week during a particularly enthusiastic Atomex meeting, he shared one that is attributed variously to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain:
"It is wiser to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
Ben and Antony both liked it, but given the meeting they'd just had, did wonder exactly what had inspired him to share it.
