fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
No Meetings Weeks
By: Kabir, Ko-Bir
Tags: Meetings, Management, Google, Engineering

Google’s way of managing employee burnout in stressful December to January 2021 is simply brilliant! Copy it for your team!

Meetings to keep in touch with remote employees — especially engineering types — is always a dumb idea. I manage a small team of engineers and operations teams for my tiny software company and have never called a meeting for the sake of touching base or handling them.

I have called a 15–30 min zoom meeting without video to help my teams solve potentially difficult problems so that they don’t get stuck with an email thread from hell from internal and external parties. These short meetings serve as a helping hand in decision making for potentially complex problems. This serves as an aid to my team in shrinking the TODO list and not growing it with new items from the meeting.

A meeting that takes one item off an existing TODO list for a team is a meeting worth joining for all and not the other way!

As a leader, it’s my job to curb the list of things to do and not keep inflating it!

So don’t call meetings for anything but and be happy!
To Meet and Separate
By: Somsubhra Banerjee
Tags: Intimately Intricate, Meetings, Destiny, Poetry, Thoughts

The ones who are supposed to meet,

they anyways meet, they always meet,

bumping into each other,

with destiny’s hand,

with co-incidence’s hand,

playing a major part, a big role,

even if for a brief moment, they meet,

(that lingering thought of separation,

playing on their minds, always)

to disappear soon after, but,

wishing, hoping, to bump back again,

to meet again, someday,

and let some new stories roll,

and let those old memories be re-lived,

in a new way.
4 Excuses to not Turn On Your Zoom Camera. Translated
Tags: Coronavirus, Startup, Work, Meetings, Productivity

4 Excuses to not Turn On Your Zoom Camera. Translated

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Zoom. The app that suddenly jumped out when COVID-19 jumped the pond as well. Suddenly, instead of an ‘all hands on deck’ meeting at work, we’ll have one online with grainy video and screaming kids in the background.

My Camera Isn’t Working

Translated: My Camera is probably working. I just think that this meeting provides no value and is a waste of time. I don’t care that your daughter is able to go back to school because you live in a country where people wear a mask. I‘m still stuck at home with my annoying children whose computers never work.

There’s Children In The Background

Translation: I don’t have children in the background. They’re literally upstairs in ‘remote learning’. But, I do have a wine glass full of chardonnay at 9 am. Should I be drinking? No. But again, if staying at home with children all day is our ‘new normal’, then drinking before 5 pm will be too.

I’m In A Public Background

Translation: Everything is shut down. Did you actually think that I’m outside trying to get COVID-19. In fact, I’m at home taking a shower. Why am I taking a shower? Because this entire meeting is completely useless and none of it applies to anyone.

I Don’t Have A Camera

Translated: I probably do have a camera. If you look at the participants menu, you can see that I do, in fact, have a camera. But you can’t tell because you’re incompetent.
How To Use Steve Jobs’s Famous Habit to Improve Your Life
By: Shivendra Misra
Tags: Health, Business, Life Lessons, Walking, Meetings

“It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote in a letter to her depressed sister-in-law — “Above all,” he told her in 1847, “do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”

For him, as a philosopher, sitting was the root of disease and despair. But walking was sacred — a way for him to do his best work and release the frustrations that his philosophical quest often brought him.

Time and time again, the successful ones from all walks of life have considered walking and movement as a catalyst for creativity.

Take Charles Darwin for instance. Best known for his theory of evolution, he gave the foundation of this principle in his theory of natural selection. In his marvelous career, he published 19 books. Everything ranging from a monograph about barnacles to the Origin of Species, which is the single most influential book in the history of science — and a foundation for many discoveries to come.

Have a look at his schedule:

“If Darwin had been a professor today in had been a professor in a university today,” says Alex Pang in his book Rest, “he would have been denied tenure.” He continues further, “If he’d been working in a company, he would have been fired within a week.”

Darwin is not alone. Many other luminaries follow, in fact.

Charles Dickens developed a methodical approach to his work, and sit from 9 am to 2 pm, after which he would go on a three-hour walk, the observations from which he’d put straight into his writing.

Nikola Tesla got the idea of a rotating magnetic field, one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time, while walking through a city park in Budapest in 1882. This discovery was the key principle for Alternating Current to work without which you wouldn’t have electricity to do anything you're doing right now.

And as a last fascinating example, William Wordsworth walked 180,000 miles in his lifetime. That’s an average of 6.5 miles every day since he was five years old!

Yet, when it comes to inculcating the habit in our own lives, I know what you’re thinking, “Where’s the time?”
Meeting Reform with MeetingZero
By: Matt Lane
Tags: Business, Meetings, Culture, Agile, Productivity

At the end of the day, we want to assess options and understand how opinions have evolved over time. So, how can we do this?

Good meeting facilitation is foundational; however, not everyone is seen as a neutral actor or is skilled enough to facilitate, nor is every organization capable of ensuring all employees can become expert meeting facilitators.

So, I set out on a quest to fix meetings and co-developed a solution with my two founders (Henry Steckel and Arun Sood) to address broken team dynamics and to also improve already high-performing teams.

It is called MeetingZero. And, it removes pointless meetings and turns them into highly productive, digitally assisted, workshops — moving from meetings to collaborative problem-solving and structured sessions, i.e., to push discussions into decisions.

Our mission is to continuously improve how groups of individuals synchronously accomplish their work…together.

And, to do that, we decided that after years of experiencing both good and bad meetings that the most important root issues arise at the “during the meeting” stage. So, we began by squarely focusing on this part of the journey.

We are interested in solving this problem because we know that effective meeting reform = massive optimization opportunities for improving organizational performance. We have seen the value from doing things right first hand and want to productize the best practices of offline meeting facilitation so everyone can experience group productivity at the highest possible level.

We believe effective meetings are one of the most important ingredients for company success and driving product-led growth, and that our groupware solution is the future of work.
I Implore You —Read “Read This Before Our Next Meeting!”
By: C.N. Dale
Tags: Business, Meetings, Best Practices, Book Recommendations

A screenshot of the cover of Al Pittampalli’s book

In 2013, Al Pittampalli wrote this marvelous short book on how best to run meetings and decide which meetings to attend. It is still the best book on meetings I have ever read. Despite it having sold over 100,000 copies and the key points being published and updated at ModernMeetingStandard.com, I have yet to work with any individual or organization that has attempted to adopt this strategy. Instead, my calendar has often been jam-packed with meetings hosted by a project manager for the purpose of engaging in exploratory discussions or obtaining updates from each invitee. So, in the interest of improving meetings and efficiency everywhere, below are four of Pittampalli’s most interesting recommendations.

Informational meetings should be eliminated within the organization. Brainstorming sessions are still encouraged for creative purposes but are not considered meetings. A meeting should only be called to: (1) support a decision that the decision maker has made and proposes be implemented, (2) resolve conflict or (3) coordinate a plan of action. The decision maker should seek any required input from colleagues in one-on-one conversations in advance. The decision to be supported during the meeting will have been thoroughly researched and considered by the decision maker before the meeting agenda is distributed. An agenda must be distributed well in advance of the meeting, setting out the decision being debated or the action being coordinated. People are expected to come prepared to weigh-in and reach a conclusion during the meeting. People that are unprepared or have nothing to add are expected to decline the meeting invitation and accept the outcome of the meeting. The conclusion of the meeting will be memorialized by the host and circulated. This document will specify the decisions reached, actions to be taken, and individuals responsible for each action.

That’s not all of Pittampalli’s suggestions, but even if everyone only implements the above recommendations, many hours now occupied by meetings could be re-allocated to more valuable work.
The Blank Sheet of Paper Test
By: Dwayne Phillips
Tags: Agreement, Work, Meetings, Test, Communication

by Dwayne Phillips

Everyone claims agreement. Great. Let’s just test that statement with a blank sheet of paper.

“We all agree on what we are to do!” claimed a person full of hope and anxious to get to work.

“Wow, great,” said a second person who likes to hear good news, but is skeptical when hearing that, “Everyone is in agreement.”

“Let’s confirm that,” suggests the second person.

The first person, pauses and stops breathing. “Well,” says the first person, “everyone is nodding, so that confirms it.”

“Maybe,” says the second person, “and since you are so confident, let’s take just a couple of minutes to confirm.”

All the persons who were nodding stop nodding and also stop breathing.

“Please,” says the second person, “No one say anything while we confirm this and no one look at what your neighbor will be writing.”

The second person gives all the agree-ers a blank sheet of paper. Each person has a pen or pencil.

“Okay,” says the second person, “everyone write the agreement on their sheet of paper. Please, no talking and no peaking at anyone else’s piece of paper. Just jot the agreement, a few lines or sentences will be fine. And don’t write your name on your paper.”

Two minutes later, the second person collects all the pieces of paper.

You know what happens next. A glance through the pieces of paper show that the group is not in agreement. Even given leeway for wording the same thought differently, the pieces of paper all differ. Maybe there is one small thing on every piece of paper, but the main thoughts vary wildly.

There is, however, a several points of unanimity among the persons in the room. (1) They are all tired of discussing what they were discussing. (2) They all wish the group would agree. (3) They all want to do something else.

Now what? Go home. Take a long break. Come back next week and try again. Try to find some items of agreement other than the three points listed in the prior paragraph.

This isn’t easy. No one said it would be.
Ask big questions by starting small
By: Phil Mendez
Tags: Teamwork, Team Building, Work, Meetings, Leadership

I reflected on my favorite meetings. An instructional coach, in a meeting on literacy for second grade, started by asking, “why do we read? As adults, personally, why?” last year. I haven’t forgotten my answer.

That’s the hook.

I’d been undermining the power of big questions. In fact, as a leader in meetings, I have stayed away from these big questions. I thought they were too distracting, luxurious. We had work to do. What was a big question going to accomplish? Shouldn’t we be talking about student data? Planning a grammar lesson?

Lately, I have been working on a new project to deploy a content creation team at a K-12 school. I had been thinking carefully about the impression I wanted to leave in our first meeting. How was I going to set the tone? Create meaning, purpose, and lean toward action?

I decided to start with a big question, “what is a story?” — an old trick I learned from my first internship in college as an assistant administrator for Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts.

Lovewell starts every program with this question — “what is a story?”. And, at Lovewell, there’s a big job to do: build an original work of musical theatre, in less than three weeks.

So why start with a big question? When I first saw the young artists of Lovewell, sitting comfortably in the gutted theatre that just days later would be transformed into a complex moving set, musing philosophically about stories, I thought, “this is absurd.”

In hindsight, it was essential.

So, to launch the new project, with new players, for the first ever cross-divisional content creation team for a K-12 school, I started small by asking— “what is a story?”

Of course, more goes into this. There is a funnel. We then want to know what is a story for our school? What pre-existing content/ideas can we use to get the most out of all that? Why this program? Why you? What stories are we actually going to write for next Tuesday? Write five, pick two.

If you want to run a fantastic meeting, I encourage you to ask big questions by starting small — and finish with a funnel that leads to action.
Yawning in Meetings Is a Compliment
By: James Mcintosh
Tags: Zoom, Boss, Meetings, Nonsenseatwork, Yawning

Yawning in Meetings Is a Compliment

Congratulations. You have the yawner’s brain working madly. (free public domain: clipart-people.com)

In our Time of Zoom and All Things Virtual, meetings can appear to be boring even when they are not. So picture this. You’re leading an important meeting when someone yawns. How do you react?

Do you get angry because you assume the person is bored and/or rude? Or do you continue, knowing that the yawner has paid you a compliment?

Excuse me? Yawning is a compliment?

Yes, it can be. After conducting experiments, researchers at the University of Albany in New York concluded that yawning helps the brain to stay alert.

The common belief is that we yawn because we crave sleep. Instead, we yawn when our brain needs cool blood for optimal mental functioning. (Congratulations. You have the yawner’s brain working madly.)

What if others join in the yawning? Well, team yawning may be a mechanism to help a group stay alert in the face of danger.

So, if your team yawns, take it as a compliment. They understand the need to stay alert in the presence of the Alpha Dog or B… top female dog.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
Why I Do a 15 or 30 Minutes Meeting Instead of 60.
By: Christian Soschner
Tags: Efficiency, Meeting People, Successful Entrepreneurs, Meetings, Entrepreneurship

My opinion is — no. Usually, after 5–10 minutes, I have a glimpse of an idea of whether there is a chance that a deal can be established or not. When I have not even the slightest idea what to do after 15 minutes, it rarely got better after 30, 45, or 60 minutes.

Since I realized that, I scheduled the first intros to exactly that: 15 minutes. By doing so, it helped me a lot to save time. Let me give a real-life example:

In my consultancy, I often found out that the company that called expected a full presentation of their business case and professional feedback.

The agenda very often looked like:

30 minutes pitch,

20 minutes of feedback and

10 minutes whether we could do something together

Most of those video calls didn’t lead to a closing. So I changed that agenda to one that suits more my reality:

5 minutes introduction of the parties

5 minutes formulating what the company expects from me

5 minutes chat whether I can be helpful or not

End of meeting

This practice resulted in a much better closing rate on my end. The companies who do not want to pay leave anyways. And those who want to pay consultancy fees usually book a coaching hour to run their pitch through.

On top of that, it saved me an awful lot of time. Meetings that do not lead to closings end after 15 minutes. It gives me an extra 45 minutes that I can use for other value-generating activities.

By doing so, I can have 4 sales calls in 60 minutes instead of 1. It means that my call rate goes up from 100 to 400 in the same amount of time. And results mathematically in 4–12 closings than 1–3.
Meetings don’t need to take that long
By: Stuart Robinson
Tags: Startup, Meetings, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Management

Photo by Ocean Ng on Unsplash

A meeting that is scheduled for one hour will likely fill that allotted time.

A meeting that is scheduled for 30 minutes may not be long enough to cover what requires an hour’s discussion.

But, if you schedule something with a tighter timeframe, you are then forced to omit any of the unnecessary time wasting that the one-hour meeting involves.

If required, you can then arrange another meeting to cover the missing parts or finish off through email at a much lower cost to the organization.
How to focus on virtual classes
By: Hou Khit
Tags: Zoom, Study Tips, Focusing, Virtual Classroom, Meetings

Currently, I am a final year engineering student and realizes that people now are struggling with virtual meetings, classes, and conferences. People might find it is hard to focus on those activities because we usually get used to the face-to-face study environment.

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash

Here’re a few tips on how to focus on virtual classes:

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

1. Have a study environment

Study environment should be place in public space with minimum distraction in your home. Public space will make us more discipline and not waste time just laying on our bed.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Unsplash

Prepare early

Be prepare all the lecturer material ahead of time will help you to switch into study mood. You will be more motivated to study and pay attention on the lectures.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Take note

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Interact with the lecturer and classmate

Photo by William Felker on Unsplash

Eat food that boosts your brain

Switch off all distraction

Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash

Drink a lot of water

Hope those tips can help you in focusing on either school classes or meeting.

Thank you for reading my blog and appreciate your support.
How to Host Better Team Meetings
By: Fab Giovanetti
Tags: Habits, Business, Work, Meetings, Productivity

Setting the scene and finding purpose

“I think the largest mistake people make is trying to replicate the ‘in person meeting’ experience and forgetting about some of the unique advantages you have now that you’re all online.” — Brennan McEachran, CEO at Soapbox

Right from the beginning of our conversation, we discuss the idea of engaging in more purposeful meetings.

“I think you have to be much more purposeful online, because you’re not going to get as much time with your team“ points out McEachran.

When it comes to building more purpose, the truth is that you should approach online meetings as a completely different beast: “try to forget everything you know, and and rebuild what you need with your team from the ground up. There are so many micro differences when you do a video call.”

For example, if you’re all joining a boardroom, if someone’s one minute late to a couple people or a couple of minutes late, it’s really not that big of a deal. In fact, that’s where some of the really good chitchat happens, right?

If someone’s two minutes late to an online meeting, everyone just has to sit there and wait. You can’t chit chat. What can you do in situations like these? You need to reframe and set the scene.

This can be a really good spot to take advantage of the fact that you can share your screen while you wait for people to join and uncover something that’s not important to the agenda itself.

At Soapbox, Brennan likes to start his meetings with three trivia questions. They’re just on the screen, for people who show up five minutes early. They get to see the questions. They’re in the chat. They get to chat their answers and prove that they know and then when the meeting actually starts, he starts the meeting and straight after that, he reads the answers to the questions: “So if you’re late, you kind of miss out on that. It’s a nice fun little incentive to show up either early or on time, but that’s only possible in an online meeting.”
A 60-Second Tool to Improve Focus
By: Gregory Affsa
Tags: Positive Thinking, Meetings, Tools, Energy, Focus

Transitioning between meetings and tasks constantly throughout the day is taxing on our minds. It’s like a long transition edit in a film where one scene slowly fades into the other. We carry the baggage of previous tasks into our next task. I’ve been struggling with this even more since shifting to work entirely remote. At least before there was some respite in having to walk between places. A tool that I had been employing in my office life has proved to be really useful now that I’m remote and I’d like to share it.

Micro Transitional Meditation (MTM) is the fancy name I made up for the simple task of setting my intentions before each task or meeting that I shift to throughout the day. Before I begin any meeting or task I pause, close my eyes and set my intentions for the next part of day in three categories:

Mindset — This is where I give my brain orders on how it should function, what mode I want it to be in; i.e. — creative, focused, analytical, etc. Attitude — This is where I define who I need to be: compassionate, open minded, critical, confident, engaging, etc. Responsibility — This is where I define what I will own about the outcome, specifically what will I contribute, create, achieve.

Within each category I say at least one affirmation. Whether your are early, on time, or late, I promise you have 60 seconds to spare. No one will notice you missed a minute and you’ll bring a more focused and attentive self to the meeting. Here’s what it might look like in action:

Prior to joining the meeting, I close my eyes, turn off my music, take a deep breath and take 20-seconds to just enjoy the silence. Then I state my affirmations (out loud) for each category. For this example, I’m going in a session where I am leading a team in a framework.

“I will be sharp, attentive, and empathetic to my audience.”

“I will be engaging and confident.”

“I will give clear instructions, I will support them in their tasks, I will help them find an answer to their problem.”

I take one more deep breath, open my eyes and start my next meeting.

That’s it. Simple, easy to do and inspiring. Make sure to say it out loud so you can hear yourself. Just thinking about the affirmations in your mind isn’t enough, you have to speak them into existence!

I find this especially helpful when my previous meeting sucked. It doesn’t even matter why the meeting was terrible, I don’t want that negativity to infect me once I’ve left the meeting, or cause it spread to other people. Do your part to flatten the curve of negativity! We are responsible for the energy we carry, and it will do good or damage depending on how we wield it.

I’ve expanded my use of MTM to help with everyday transitions in life. Try it the second you open your eyes in the morning and set your intentions for the day. Or use it before you walk into the house after being stuck in traffic. There is very little in the world that we can control, but the energy we put into it is one thing we can.
Ethics: Seven Questions To Ask In A Board Meeting
By: Sebastiaan Hooft
Tags: Moral Responsibility, Executive Coaching, Ethics, Meetings, Board Of Directors

Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash

Do you run into an ethical issue in your board meeting?

Then ask yourself the following questions:

What exactly is the ethical issue?

Who are those involved?

What else do I need to know?

What do laws, regulations, and standards say?

What are the arguments?

What is my responsibility?

What am I going to do?

I discussed this way of asking questions with the Dutch Association of Professional Coaches Department Executive Coaching on Thursday, 8 October 2020. This year’s theme is ethics in the boardroom. If you would like to learn more about this topic, please ask a question at the bottom of this article or send a direct message.
Less meetings
By: Samantha Oosterling
Tags: Scrum, Meetings, Lessons Learned, Agile, Productivity

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

I’ve been a software developer for quite a while now and I’ve worked for various companies but I could never get used to the redundant time that’s spend on meetings. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying get rid of all meetings but sometimes I do wish meetings would be a lot shorter.

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

But on the other hand maybe this is a developer’s point of view. In most of my projects, if not all of them, we worked with the Agile Scrum methodology. For the non-developers amongst us: Scrum is a framework for making (software) products in a flexible way. We work in multidisciplinary teams that deliver working (software) products in short sprints with a fixed length of 1 to 4 weeks.

I find the Agile Scrum methodology awesome if used correctly. My husband and I even use it in our daily lives. Scrum has four ceremonies that are crucial for the delivery process. These should help the team to get their work structured, help everyone on the team to collaborate about their work, keep expectations on point, and last and often most important; get results.
Lights, camera, design!
By: Kevin Muldoon
Tags: User Experience, Design, Meetings, Collaboration, Videos

Video screencast creation is something every product designer should have in their bag of tricks.

Nothing has the power or flexibility to share thought processes, user-flows, micro-interactions, and demonstrate full-featured prototypes like videos. It is the one communication tool guaranteed to engage your audience and allows them to consume important content on their own time.

You don’t need to be a YouTube star. You don’t need fancy studio lights or expensive microphones or complicated video-editing software. You’ve already got everything you need right at your fingertips!

The best part about creating videos is that it frees up a lot of time you could spend doing the things you love, like creating products.

Less meetings, more doings

I see calendars stuffed with meeting after meeting, back to back, filling every possible time slot, often booked solid for weeks. Sometimes, the very concept of stepping out for lunch becomes a non-starter.

Creating and distributing videos is an excellent way of sharing detailed information with a broader audience without the need for a meeting. Unlike word files or copy decks, people engage with videos. There are a few simple rules I like to use. First, the video needs to be short — about 3 to 5 minutes — and it needs to be effortless to consume by your audience.

What do you need?

There are plenty of screencast applications available to download. Some are absolutely free. Personally, I use iShowU Instant by shinywhitebox software, but if the application video captures your screen and audio through your microphone, you’re set!

Next, you need to upload your videos so you can share them. YouTube, Vimeo, or Microsoft Stream are great choices. In fact, your organization probably has an account with one of these services, so reach out and see about getting access for your own content.

Creating a central repository for your videos through your organization helps ensure your content is secure and easily accessible by everyone in your company.
Meetings Suck
By: Michael Doane
Tags: Business, Event Management, Books, Meetings, Startup Lessons

Here’s how to make them better according to the experts.

7 books that were written to help organizers make meetings and events more effective, actionable, and interesting to participants.

We’re spending more time than ever in meetings, and most of them are passive online experiences now. How can we prevent meeting burnout and feel every event we attend is valuable?

Here are six books from the experts that answer exactly this.

1. Intentional Event Design by Tahira Endean

Tahira says that event organizers must empathize with their audience and create experiences that leave attendees with knowledge that will change their behavior in a meaningful way after the event is over.

It’s the lasting affects of an event on a participant’s psyche that’s most important.

2. Special Events for Less by Katie Herritage

Katie drives home the point that spending for the sake of itself isn’t worthwhile. Sure, you might be able to up the production level, or provide attendees with something that is perceived as cool or interesting.

But does it align with attendees goals? If it doesn’t, it probably isn’t worth doing.

3. Into the Heart of Meetings by Eric de Groot

Eric says that meetings are a framework that naturally evolve with actual participation. He gets us thinking about the mind and body in the meeting space too.

With so many virtual meetings now, how can we maximize participation and mirror the face-to-face experience? At physical meetings (when we have them) how can we maxmimize opportunity for the mind and body to function together to create unique connections?

4. THRIVE: The Facilitator’s Guide to Radically Inclusive Meetings by Mark Smutny

Mark says that meeting outcomes are perhaps more important than the meeting itself. But to have good outcomes you need first create an environment in which a goal-oriented community can thrive.

Starting with an agenda and having clearly defined rules that consider everyone are good places to start.

5. Conferences that Work by Adrian Segar

Adrian says that traditional conferences put too much pressure on so-called subject matter experts. In what he calls peer conferences, it is the participant that is the expert.

He says conferences that position partipants as professional experts (because they are) and facilitate conversation work better.

6. The Non-Obvious Guide To Event Planning by Andrea Driessen

Andrea says meeting organizers must be very specific about the outcomes they want their events to achieve. This helps them define their audience and help that audience achieve whatever it is they consider success.

Having your audience be motivated or inspired is not enough. What exactly do you want them to leave and do when they return to the office?

7. Meetings Suck by Cameron Herold

Cameron says that it’s up to attendees to make the most of the meetings they attend. It’s the organizers job, however, to give attendees a clear agenda so they can make informed decisions on what to attend and what to skip.

With proper planning, attendees can achieve value from every meeting.

- Mike Doane
Fostering Psychological Safety at Your Next Meeting
By: Synthia S.
Tags: Workplace Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Work, Meetings, Psychology

In the meantime, one may wonder if sustained use of virtual meetings can potentially harm our psychological safety. Coined by Dr. Amy Edmondson, psychological safety pertains to a belief system that we will not be humilitated or punished for speaking up with questions, concerns and ideas.

It makes sense to worry about something such as this because in online contexts, we may miss some of the non-verbal social cues associated with an in-person meeting. Plus, while we’re doing these meetings, we’re doing them in a place where there could be a plethora of distractions, including doorbells, screaming children, or even wandering pets.

While not everyone is struggling to make ends meet with virtual meetings, they can become difficult for professionals who are used to compartmentalizing their two lives, their professional one and their interpersonal one, as two separate entities. Instead, both lives are forced to operate together under the work-life balance, which might not be shabby, especially if you’re the type who needs that extra emotional support to keep going.

Photo created by the author Synthia on the website Canva

On the upside, we are human, and that means most others will feel the same way as we do. While working away at your latest meeting session, the lack of social cues, such as the absence of toes and legs, can be to your benefit. Instead of worrying about what shoes to wear, you can instead focus that energy on something else, increasing your level of productivity, helping you get closer to your next corporate goal.

Furthermore, other functions become simplified, such as turn-taking and hand-raising. Instead of interrupting others, you can press a button to take your turn. Instead of allowing a disruptive and volatile person repeatedly ruin the status quo, they can be muted. Polls can be done to easily visualize or express an opinion anonymously, while also fostering team building. Interactive charts can be made as well, alongside secondary breakout rooms if needed.

Beyond the scope of these meetings, psychological safety can be enhanced. We don’t have to worry about an employee physically lashing out. Everyone is guarded as they are being recorded, so there is less risk of one or more people being as insensitive or rude as they did in the past. While it seems lonely at times, the pay off we are seeing might foster greater productivity and engagement, which isn’t a bad thing.
The Quiet Person | Career Angles
By: Jeff Altman
Tags: Career Advice, Career Coaching, Career Angles, Meetings, Inclusivity

This was the second time I hosted the group and the second time I felt excluded from it.

The stories were all old as we played a little catch-up, the conversation as too many do these days turned to politics. The hyenas came out, cackling their opinions. As I do these days, I tuned them out and asked that the conversation be changed to something else. Quickly the conversation returned to where I asked it not to.

I was brought back to a time in life where the same men kept me on the periphery of the group. The feeling of being tolerated rather than accepted returned.

I thought of all those meetings I had attended in my professional career where there are people on the fringes of the core of the group who, generally, or ignored, dismissed, and otherwise treated like potted plants.

Now, let me talk to you “potted plants.”

It’s easy to succumb to the feelings of dismissal but, as Justice Ginsburg said, “Fight for the things that you care about, and do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

Accepting the tyranny of the majority is your choice. At times, it may be a wise decision. At times, it is a habit that should be revisited.

For you in the majority, you’re missing something. You wanted certain people in the room and then didn’t include them in the discussion. Don’t blame it on them. You created the conditions and you can change those conditions.

If they were important enough and valuable enough to be present, they are important enough and valuable enough to be included and not ignored or dismissed.

All ideas need to be shared openly and the environment doesn’t support that. There are consequences for having those kinds of environments just like there was when we closed our call and I told everyone I would not be participating until after January with the election was decided. The next morning, I went so far as to message everyone my decision from withdrawing from future conversations. My energies need to be focused on other projects rather than convincing people that I should be heard.

I’ve said many times that winners find the way to win and losers find a way to lose. Some games can’t be won. Thus, rather than waste energy and time, the winner finds again that they can win.

Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2020

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1900 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.

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How to Decline a Meeting
Tags: Business, Work, Meetings, Time, Productivity

1: The weekly status meeting

Status meetings are an inefficient way to share small updates between a large crowd. The cost of these meetings is astronomical — often a dozen man-hours per time. Most attendees sit on mute and browse the Internet. “ Sorry, I missed that question. Can you repeat it?”

If you are a peripheral member, I would send a decline message such as:

Hi Sam, I’m trying to reclaim some calendar space to get more work completed. Happy to join on an ad-hoc basis if my input is useful. Thanks, Duncan

It’s polite and to the point. You’ve explained why you’re declining — who can argue with getting more work done? — and left the door open for joining occasional meetings.

If you are a core member, escaping is harder. You could ask the organiser if this is the most efficient way to swap information. Daily check-ins on Slack or weekly summary emails, might be better.

If that fails, you can either decline outright or do a soft decline. An outright decline might look like this:

Hi Sam, I’d love to join this status meeting, but I’ve got to prioritise my work on Project Flimflam. Shall I send you a summary of my inputs and you can invite me on an ad-hoc basis if needed? Thanks, Duncan

While a soft decline would involve sending a “tentative” response with text such as:

Hi Sam, I’ll join this meeting whenever I can, but please go on without me. I’ll be sure to send a summary of anything urgent that needs highlighting. Thanks, Duncan

If you have any better ideas for this scenario, let me know in the comments.
Online collaboration with Mural
By: Peter Brownell
Tags: Meetings, Collaboration, Online Tools

I’ve got nothing to do with @mural. I just started using the tool a few weeks ago. I have however found myself very excited, and getting into it more and more. It’s opened up a different form of meeting for me. One where I can allow conversation to begin around a topic, and then guide along some “rails” by creating a collaborative space on the fly. It feels like making art with meetings. (And I don’t really know how to use it that well, yet)
Thinking Out Loud
By: Dwayne Phillips
Tags: Thinking, Work, Meetings, Communication, Context

by Dwayne Phillips

Some persons “think out loud.” This is okay only when done properly.

Some persons “think out loud.” They state a list of ideas quickly. This is a rough draft spoken instead of jotted on paper. The ideas are only partially formed and should be worked and reworked until they make sense.

That is fine, but only when done properly.

Persons, especially those in position of authority, need to provide context to what they say. If a person is “thinking out loud,” state that first so that everyone else knows what follows are partially formed ideas. Otherwise, everyone else may take the rough-draft-ideas as final direction. They immediately implement the thoughts — most of which should have been ignored.

“I’m thinking out loud, go with me a few minutes, and let’s see where this takes us.”

There, that isn’t too hard, is it? It allows the speaker to completely spew everything that it swirling in the mind.

And everyone else knows they can suggest changes to the speakers rough draft.
Tupperware Man. Memorable Client: Drove somebody home…
By: Trin Carl
Tags: Strangers, Relationships, Meetings, Traveling

Photo by Amaan S Kishan upsplash.com

Memorable Client: Drove somebody home who said this was the first time he saw his family in six years. He said his family knows he’s the type who doesn’t care what he thinks.

I remember this client because he spoke so arrogantly about how he gives chase to women in the clubs. His vulgarity surprised me because he was so vulnerable and not very attractive. He even had with him two big Tupperwares of leftover Thanksgiving turkey. The containers slid on the seats as I turned. He had me stop at the gas station before returning home(cigarettes?)

The man seemed to understand that he needed to change as we furthered the conversation but he didn’t know how to go about it. Not many male passengers are this honest and it made me think twice about the other side of the story. The one I never hear.

New Word: corpsman

Means an enlisted member of a military medical unit.
Having A Touch Screen Laptop Finally Paid Off
By: Joydwip Mohajon
Tags: Zoom, Education, Meetings, Online Classes, Teaching

I have got more use out of the touch screen of my laptop in these past few months than ever since I bought it five years ago.

We all have used our fair share of zoom in this lock-down, whether it was for business meetings, online classes, or just casual meetups with your friends. The truth is it was never satisfying, but it was the best option we had and still is.

But the pain of taking online classes or giving an online presentation through zoom was significantly minimized when I found the perfect tool.

The funny thing though, I never knew I had it until one month into the lock-down when I accidentally discovered it.

One day when I was cleaning the webcam — it became sticky cause I put a tape on it when I’m not using it, you never know — I accidentally touched the screen and I just realized that I have a touch screen laptop. Stupid me.

Back when I bought my current laptop, I was still a student. I just needed a new laptop with a bit more RAM than just 2 GB. Yeah, just 2 GB, whereas most phones these days have more than 4 GB of RAM.

So, I bought a new one with better configs than just 2 GB of RAM. It’s a 2-in-1 laptop, the ones you can fold 360 degrees with touch screen capability. But back then, it was more about fun than productivity to have a touch screen laptop. Trust me, I am not one of the creative ones who do need these extra features that comes with a touch screen laptop.

No wonder, why I forgot it was there in the first place.

That’s right, I almost forgot it was there, maybe after the first year. I discovered it now and again, then forgot again until the next discovery.

But the most usage came after the recent discovery.
Try a Silent Zoom Meeting
By: Cari Nazeer
Tags: Work, Meetings, Remote Working, Productivity

Photo: Luis Alvarez / Getty Images

As I type this, I’m staring at the faces of four of my colleagues (hi, guys!), each of whom looks lost in their own thoughts. Someone briefly un-mutes to make a joke about forgetting they’re on a video call and accidentally doing something weird. Someone else laughs and says, It’s okay, we’re not, like, watching each other.

Whoops. It’s the Forge team’s first remote work session, and what can I say? It’s nice to have the company.

Plenty has been written (including a Daily Tip on this very website) about the productivity benefits of silent video co-working: how the virtual presence of other people can help you focus, or provide a feeling of accountability that helps you knock out your to-dos.

But I’d argue that the primary draw is not productivity. The Zoom Working Session is a form of workplace interaction that feels — well, not fully organic, but maybe the closest we’ve got right now. You have other humans as ambient sights and sounds. Unlike Zoom happy hours, there’s no pressure to say anything, or even pay attention to anyone else. Unlike Slack, there’s no way to edit and delete and retype a thought before it’s shared. Have something you want to say? Just unmute yourself and say it out loud, and take in the real-time reactions.

Or forego mute altogether, as we end up doing about halfway through our hour. There’s something soothing about hearing the clatter of multiple people typing at once. It’s a noise I hadn’t realized I missed.

So, a letter of recommendation: Set up a Zoom meeting with absolutely no agenda. Invite your coworkers, or your work friends, or non-work friends who you want to work next to. And then…. do whatever you need to get done, separately but together.
Best Practices for Virtual Meetings
By: Sabrina Nunez, Mba
Tags: Zoom, Virtual Meetings, Career Advice, Professional Development, Meetings

Present Engaging Ideas

Virtual meetings can be hard to keep participants engaged. When people are not on mute, the clacking of keyboard keys can be heard, participants can join with their cameras off, and some teammates may not share feedback when asked to. Sometimes, the situation can be out of your control, but there are tricks to help regain control of meetings and elevate engagement. For instance, I always make it a point to ensure everyone will have their cameras on. If the meeting invite is sent at least three days in advance, I write on the meeting invite “Required: Cameras ON.” This memo allows participants to prepare to do their part. Participants can ensure they have the right equipment and environment to contribute successfully since I have made it an expectation.

Photo by Júnior Ferreira on Unsplash

Another trick is to gear your agenda towards a virtual meeting. What I mean by this is to interlace break time, fun time, and discussion time into your schedule. If the meeting is early in the morning, you can offer your audience a 5-minute session of trivia or a coffee break with icebreaker questions. For meetings in the afternoon, engagement can be meek. By 3 PM, I’m usually ready for a nap and more coffee. It would not be frowned upon to include additional fun time for meetings after lunch. Getting creative is vital; I have seen companies host a pet from their local zoo for a few minutes in their meeting. One company hosted a koala for 10 minutes, and their keeper shared facts about koalas before the meeting started. Engagement is achievable; it just takes creativity.