A candle poking fun. YouTube music videos with lyrics built around the premise. Memes and cartoons. A divided world that is unable to agree upon much these days other than...
"THIS MEETING COULD HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL."
Let's be honest here. If meeting attendees leave with this opinion, it is squarely on the team lead who called it. Want to hear a little attendee secret? Your meetings potentially hamper their deadlines, not including the two "talkers" of the group who routinely fly past the allotted times discussing new lunch venues. We have a "catch-22 meeting wheel of (productivity) death." As in HBO's hit, Game of Thrones, time to break the wheel! (GOT earworm intro music plays in the background)
Three things you can do today to stop your team from ordering a candle.
1. Phones down.
If the content of your meeting is casual enough that heavy phone usage is in play, maybe your meeting should have been an email.
2. No takeaway, no attendance.
A goal. In your meeting, every attendee could potentially be assigned a task to handle. Use this to help differentiate who should attend and possibly thin your group ahead of time.
3. Pick up the phone.
A majority of meetings desire feedback. Most people hate speaking in a group setting.
Let's hit that one again. We schedule meetings where people feel the most awkward giving feedback. Send out your meeting email, then reach out to your attendees to discuss. You'll be amazed at the better feedback.
BONUS: Stop weekly update meetings for the sake of weekly update meetings.
Give your team a deadline before the meeting to send a one-sentence overview of items they wish to cover. Once delivered, assess the list, then determine if it's meeting-worthy, a group email, or perhaps postpone.
Forty-nine thousand five hundred and eight people ordered a passive-aggressive candle from ETSY. Maybe an email to discuss your project meetings would be better?