We’ve all been in a meeting that could have been handled through email. And we’ve all been part of an email chain that, due to its complexity and nuance, really should have been handled in a face-to-face meeting. We’ve all had the experience of getting lost in our work, of forgetting time and restraints, of reaching what might be called an optimal flow state – and then receiving a phone call or receiving a notification that calls us away from that work…to a meeting. Our leaders serve us best when they think about our time and our talents – how to save the former and give us the greatest opportunity to develop, exercise, and share the latter. Meetings often have the opposite effect; executed poorly, organized around the wrong set of tasks, or calling together the wrong group of colleagues at the wrong hours of the day, meetings can waste time, grind good people down, and reduce opportunities for people to share their talents. In this problem solver session, we’ll open by sharing some best practices and ideas around appropriate ‘blending’ of meeting structures. We’ll then jump into a activity that will challenge participants to rethink and redesign the structure of meetings that they are called to or call people to, in order to best serve our colleagues and their time and talents.
