11–20 of 51 posts
And if you want Meetings to be effective 1. Give out a short bullet point agenda for every meeting and 2. Take a break every 45 minutes.
New blog: Our team at Boomerang ( https://boomerangapp.com/ ) analyzed 3.5 million proposed meeting times, putting the conventional wisdom about the best ways to schedule meetings to the test. The results are surprising, and busted some common myths about the best days and times to schedule meetings.
I am unsurprised that earlier-in-week have more accept's than later-in-week. Weekends are a reset.
> The best time to schedule a meeting is at 11am Monday morning. People want to get meetings done and off the calendar, and this time period has the least potential for conflicting with other meeting invites. > Avoid Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. These are the most popular times to offer, meaning the potential for conflicts is high. In case anyone else was interested in just their answer to the title question.
The Wednesday one rings true. I always have an absurd number of conflicts on Wednesday.
It's also culturally dependent -- I noticed US-based employees prefer to schedule a meeting for an idea and discuss/think/make decision on the meeting. EU and even more so Asia-based employees prefer to first discuss the idea on multiple 1:1s for a long time, to discuss / think / make decision with everyone, come up with some harmony before any formal meetings. And the meeting itself would serve only ceremonial needs…
This is so that the manager doesn't lose face in front of his subordinates. In the US, if the junior employee has a stroke of genius during the meeting and comes up with a better idea than the manager, then the manager just looks good for hiring that guy.
It's also culturally dependent -- I noticed US-based employees prefer to schedule a meeting for an idea and discuss/think/make decision on the meeting. EU and even more so Asia-based employees prefer to first discuss the idea on multiple 1:1s for a long time, to discuss / think / make decision with everyone, come up with some harmony before any formal meetings. And the meeting itself would serve only ceremonial needs…
> The best time to schedule a meeting is at 11am Monday morning. People want to get meetings done and off the calendar, and this time period has the least potential for conflicting with other meeting invites. > Avoid Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. These are the most popular times to offer, meaning the potential for conflicts is high. In case anyone else was interested in just their answer to the title question.
> The best time to schedule a meeting is at 11am Monday morning. People want to get meetings done and off the calendar, and this time period has the least potential for conflicting with other meeting invites. > Avoid Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. These are the most popular times to offer, meaning the potential for conflicts is high. In case anyone else was interested in just their answer to the title question.
The title is not what it shows, that meetings are booked more on Monday 11am doesn't mean that people prefer or are more likely to show up. I guess they don't have data on attendance, only on booking.
It's also culturally dependent -- I noticed US-based employees prefer to schedule a meeting for an idea and discuss/think/make decision on the meeting. EU and even more so Asia-based employees prefer to first discuss the idea on multiple 1:1s for a long time, to discuss / think / make decision with everyone, come up with some harmony before any formal meetings. And the meeting itself would serve only ceremonial needs…
When I became the leader, I was informed that we also needed to hold "Officers' Meetings" every month, just prior to the general meeting. The purpose of the Officers Meetings was to come to rough agreements on big issues, before they were put to a vote, and also to set the agenda for the upcoming General Meeting. With a set agenda on paper, we were much less likely to deviate from the action items listed therein.
Unfortunately for me, it proved impossible to schedule Officers' Meetings, because of facilities considerations and nearly nonexistent turnout. I held some at my own home and one person would attend. It was wholly ineffective for the intended purpose.
We also had trouble splitting off into Committees. If a significant event was planned, such as a breakfast, then it was logical to form a committee and then have them form up and communicate. This committee should be in touch via email/phone of course, but also hold planning meetings where details of the event could be hammered out. Unfortunately, due to low participation, these Committees never did their own thing, and instead were folded into the General Meetings, wasting everyone's time discussing things like bacon and napkin counts.
I really tried. I tried to stick to the prescribed structure of the meetings; I tried to set an agenda and stick to it; I tried to redirect endless debate and discussion into more productive action. But as a first-time leader, I found out just how limited my power really was, and the sacrifices we make as servants, when the organization is dysfunctional and we're just trying to stay together as an informal family unit.
And if you want Meetings to be effective 1. Give out a short bullet point agenda for every meeting and 2. Take a break every 45 minutes.
Breaks are good when you're having half-day or all-day meetings. For example, when someone has travelled to the office and you're meeting all day.
For regular meetings with your normal office mates, if they're so long that you need to insert breaks then they should probably have been separate meetings.
Having everyone leave the meeting and then slowly meander back in always takes longer than it should. That 5 minute break can turn into 10, 15, or even 20 minutes as you try to track down the last person who wandered off and then got pulled into something else.
Just make the meetings concise enough to handle without a break. If you have more material, schedule a separate meeting for it.