There's nothing new about the need for better meetings. This is a problem space that has been under continuous scrutiny for decades. Meetings are screaming to be optimised. Have we been saved from the curse of awkward and inefficient gatherings now that many of us are working online? Of course not. For some the problem has become worse. For instance, there can be greater expectations to attend online calls and less of a social barrier to creating them, in comparison to a physical meeting that requires people to travel and show up.
Since the Covid pandemic kicked in, some people complained about an increase in the number of meetings they were being called to. All online of course. Not only were organisations hosting these calls but friends and family were also now able to connect remotely, while being simultaneously forced into separation and having little on which to spend their time.
Forward-thinking organisations are constantly looking to improve their meetings, and have established clear and deliberate principles to help them do so. Some of the tricks are dead simple, like not setting each meeting in the calendar as one-hour long, simply because that's the default meeting length in that calendar app.
For some teams, a rapid, regular meeting cadence can lead to greater output, increased efficiency, less mistakes and more comfortable staff.
If I were to start with a new firm today, the first thing I’d say is, “What is our idealized meeting frequency?"
– Eric Schmidt, speaking on The Tim Ferriss Show (#367).
An obvious example of a regular, frequent meeting process is the daily ritual from the Agile world, typically known as a daily standup or daily scrum. Each day, the engineering or product team has a quick daily meeting, typically with everyone standing up, to run quickly through what they have achieved in the last working day, what they are planning to do that day, and what is currently blocking their progress (more here: Daily Meeting~searchTerm~%27~sort~false~sortDirection~%27asc~page~1)), by the Agile Alliance). These daily sessions are part of a wider set of rituals/ceremonies, each with their own set frequency and structure – see Have we met? // Four agile ceremonies, demystified, by Atlassian.
Daily standups, like any other kind of regular business check-in, can be highly productive and engender a sense of belonging and contribution, or they can be demeaning time-drains. People love and hate them in varying measures. As with most patterns of industrial behaviour, it takes open feedback and continuous adjustment to customise these rituals to your organisation's unique context. Nevertheless, there is potential power in exploring the optimal cadence – pace, frequency, timing and regularity – of repeatable patterns.
For others, Meeting Heaven is more about interpersonal psychology, in which attendees are invited to bring their "whole selves" to a carefully cultivated climate of safety and openness. Here are some of the rituals and concepts used in this regard:
<aside> 🤝 Related: The Intentionality theme covers further patterns for harmonious meetings and interactions.
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Here are some further tips for migrating the richness of in-person interaction over to the remote working world of online calls...
Consciously re-create the best of in-office culture. Don’t forget the little things. Host a virtual happy hour or a breakfast session where people from the same field (for example, product development) can discuss their challenges. Send people a card for their birthday or other special occasions. Order coffee or food for remote employees who are in meetings to help them feel included.
– From The ultimate guide to remote work, by Miro.