Meeting overload

Jan 17

Zoom fatigue, manterruption, and unclogging our calendars | 6-min read

Bartleby's Law states that meetings waste 80% of the time of 80% of people in attendance. Though the "law" was originally published in pre-pandemic times as a satirical commentary on the [f]utility of meetings, the actual research suggests it's not that far off.

Since so much of the office world went hybrid, the data tells us meetings have, in fact, multiplied, lowered our productivity, and reinforced inequities in the workplace.

In my last corporate role, I endured an average of 6-10 video conferences a day, not including the unscheduled calls I'd receive from colleagues and clients in between. It often felt, as so many viral memes suggest, torturous.

At the same time, management gurus tell us that collaboration and communication are the keys to success in a remote work world; so how do we imagine a world without meetings?

We don't.

Instead, we imagine a world where meetings are efficient, constructive, inclusive, and dare-I-say enjoyable.

Looking across psychology, management science, and productivity studies, there is surprisingly clear consensus about what we get wrong with meetings and how to make them better. Below are the three biggest takeaways from recent research and a few simple ways we can improve our meeting-full lives.

End meeting overload

Whether you like meetings or not, the research says we have too many. One 2020 study found that time spent on collaborative activities has risen 50% over the past decade, now occupying an average of 85% of our work weeks – a level that many experts consider "overload."

While meetings are critical vehicles for communication and consensus, especially in a remote-work world, our current impulse to "schedule a call" is doing more harm than good. As I wrote about in a recent post, meeting overload lowers productivity. Each time we switch between tasks or meetings, it takes us up to 23 minutes to regain focus. So, if you have ten meetings in a day, that adds up to nearly four hours spent adjusting. This is one reason why scheduling a lot of shorter meetings (an approach that many bosses have advocated during the pandemic) is not necessarily helpful.

It's also exhausting. Though we joke about "zoom fatigue," psychologists have deemed it a serious issue. For one, the burden of staring at ourselves on-screen adds mental and emotional stressors that further limit productivity (and wellbeing). Worse, this burden is proving heaviest for women and new hires – two critical groups organizations have been struggling to retain since the start of the pandemic.

The consensus is that organizational leaders need to curb the call traffic clogging our calendars. Some companies are experimenting with meeting-free Fridays or limiting the number of calls that can be scheduled on a given day. However, these measures will only work if leaders truly commit to (and honor) these boundaries and recognize the need for both a cultural shift and an operational one.

Make meetings precious

Bogged down by the sheer volume of meetings, we have lost focus on their quality. Instead, experts agree that we need to recognize the value that great meetings bring to an organization and be much more intentional in our approach. In sum, make them precious.

There is no one-size-fits-all guide to making meetings perfect, but there are a few key ingredients that I call the "Four Ps": purpose, preparation, the right participants, and a well-trained pilot.

Purpose: As obvious as this may seem, if I had a dime (or $10 with inflation) for every call I joined whose organizer led with "can someone remind me what this meeting is about," I would have a lot of zoom stock. If you don't have a clear (and legitimate) objective for a call, made equally clear to its participants, the experts say don't hold it.

Preparation: Studies say we spend far too much time treating meetings as brainstorming space and "winging it," resulting in inefficiency and more follow-up calls. This is especially true for standing team updates that involve phrases like "around the horn," which many experts say are better done via email. Instead, meetings should be spaces (physical or virtual) for individuals to come together and share ideas and solutions that they've gathered ahead of time.
Participants: Limit invites to those who are "mission critical" to a meeting's objective. This helps reduce the organization's overall call traffic, encourages active participation, and makes meetings more effective. To be inclusive, we tend to include too many people on calls. Instead, experts suggest limiting attendees but sharing meeting notes with the broader teams after the call if relevant.
Pilot: Running an effective, efficient, and inclusive meeting is a complex skill set, and we are widely undertrained – especially in our new hybrid world. Great meetings require well-trained pilots, and organizations need to support employees (especially leaders) with both education and best practice guidelines. Some great resources are included below.

Address equity blind spots

Though less covered in the media, the research is clear on one final and critical point: meetings are rife with unconscious bias. When leaders are not proactively and intentionally inclusive in how we run a meeting, the gender and race inequities holding organizations back get reinforced.

Studies of both in-person and virtual meetings reveal that under-represented groups in the workplace face more obstacles to participating than their peers. Women and employees of color are more frequently interrupted (a phenomenon known as manterruption) and questioned; furthermore, traits like confidence that tend to be valued in white male employees are often perceived as overly aggressive or emotional among women and people of color.

Though these practices often go unnoticed in meetings, they are hugely damaging not only to under-represented employees but to the organizations that benefit from a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Experts agree that one of the most powerful ways to combat unconscious bias in the workplace is to hold leaders accountable for recognizing and correcting unconscious bias whenever it happens at work. Meetings are the best place to start.

This means monitoring participation during a meeting to ensure everyone's voice is heard and addressing interruptions when they occur. Researchers also argue that virtual meeting leaders should leverage alternative participation features like chat functions and polls to support participants who may be more comfortable sharing their views in writing.

Getting it right

Meetings are one of the most powerful tools that an organization has at its disposal to shape collaboration, culture, and actual results. Given the fundamental changes faced by the workplace over the past two years, and the many more changes to come, it's time that we take tangible steps to adjust our approach to meetings and prove Bartleby wrong.