Make your next business meeting successful with tips based on research. (Photo: Oivind Hovland via Getty Images)
Pointless, exhausting meetings are the bane of most employees’ existence. With an estimated 55 million work meetings in the U.S. per day, you are bound to experience a bad one that makes you look at the clock and pray to be put out of your misery. Forty-seven percent of workers surveyed by Salary.com in 2012 reported that “too many meetings” was their top time-waster at work.
But it does not have to be this way, a new book argues. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg, a meetings science researcher with two decades of experience, draws from studies, corporate surveys and success stories to share how you can make meetings actually useful.
1. Gain self-awareness that you may be the problem
Realize that even if you loved a meeting, not everybody else did. Citing his research that links meeting satisfaction with participation, Rogelberg says meeting leaders typically have an overly positive experience compared with attendees because they are the ones talking the most.
“If you talk a lot, you are more likely to think the meeting experience was a good one,” he explains in the book.
To break out of this bias, you need to look beyond your assumptions and directly ask attendees what they think of meeting structures, Rogelberg recommends to HuffPost.
“Don’t assume a meeting is working. Conduct a three-minute survey with folks who regularly attend your meetings about what’s going well, what’s not so good, and what can I do better,” he says.
You also need to scan attendees’ behavior for clues on what they are not telling you out loud. “If there’s one person in that room who is completely dominating other than you, you’re probably not running a good meeting,” he says.
2. Question whether you actually need to meet
No one enjoys going to an hourlong meeting that could have been an email. It wastes everyone’s time, and time is a scarce resource. A Bain & Co. study found that a weekly meeting with midlevel managers was costing one company about $15 million a year.
To prevent this, carefully consider why you are holding a meeting. “One of the things that I advocate is that a leader can think about their agenda not necessarily as topics, but as questions to be answered,” Rogelberg says. If your meeting is mainly for distributing information, leverage other communication tools, Rogelberg suggests.
Meetings are good for when you are seeking information, like asking questions and needing reactions, he says.
2. Do not default to the 60-minute meeting
Challenge the convention of an hourlong meeting. In his book, Rogelberg notes that when calendar software programs like Microsoft Outlook were introduced, 60 minutes was the default setting.
But cutting down the time can actually increase performance because we work best under some pressure, according to the psychological principle called the Yerkes–Dodson law. If you know the meeting typically takes an hour, try dialing that back and see if it still works. You want to save employees’ valuable time whenever possible.
3. Make sure remote employees do not feel anonymous
Technology advances mean that you can hold a meeting even when you are continents away from other attendees. But that comes with its own set of problems.
Rogelberg recommends remote employees be on video if at all possible, as opposed to voice. “We want people to realize they’re not anonymous,” he says.
When people feel like they can blend into the background, they can fall subject to the social loafing phenomenon, “a human tendency to reduce effort and motivation when working in a collective,” as Rogelberg describes it in the book.
To make remote employees feel as included as in-person attendees, meeting leaders need to ask people to identify themselves before speaking, so that contributions are named, Rogelberg says. They can also bring up contributions that come through messages on services like Slack.
“The meeting leader has to fully embrace their role as an air traffic controller,” he says.
4. Keep the meeting size small
Cut down bloated meeting attendance by considering who actually needs to be at the meeting and who needs to be kept in the loop. The actual numbers vary. Rogelberg notes that Google recommends no more than 10 people be present. Amazon has a “two-pizza rule” for keeping meetings below the number of people two pizzas can feed.
“There’s not a magic number per se, because it depends on what you’re trying to achieve,” Rogelberg says. “Once meetings start getting larger than eight people, the facilitation skills necessary is really high. And most people don’t have those skills.”
Keep those who don’t attend in the loop by providing meeting minutes of what was decided, Rogelberg says.
5. Brainstorm apart or in silence
For your next planning meeting, try using silence to your advantage and have people silently write down their ideas before sharing them. Other meta-analyses have found that virtual brainstorming can increase creativity compared to face-to-face brainstorming. When you are writing your idea down, you may be able to speak more freely without the structure of waiting for one person to finish talking or without the fear that your unpopular idea is not as good as someone else’s.
“When people brainstorm verbally, only so many people can speak at once,” Rogelberg says.
6. Know when to call it quits
Don’t feel like you have to finish a meeting that has derailed to its bitter conclusion. “It’s OK to end the meeting if it’s completely dysfunctional,” Rogelberg says. “Frankly it’s OK if that leader says, ‘You know what, why don’t we stop here. We’ve been able to cover this, this, and this.’”
Accept your losses so you can move on and plan more effectively for the next one.
If you only do one yoga pose after a long day at work, make it a downward-facing dog, a holistic pose that stretches and strengthens many parts of the body. To come into the pose, move into an inverted "V' shape. With hands outstretched in front and you, lift the hips and ground the feet (at about hips-width apart) into the floor. Ground all the fingers into the floor and point them forward, bring your attention to the breath as you enjoy the stretch for 30-60 seconds. "It helps you lengthen and strengthen muscles in the body," says Vidya Bielkus, certified yoga teacher and co-founder of Health Yoga Life. "It reduces tension in the shoulders, relaxes the neck, and lets a little more blood flow get to the brain. You're also able to really stretch the legs, so if you're sitting all day, the legs are getting inactive." The pose is also great for stretching out the wrists and hands, which may become sore or tired from hours of typing.
Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Counter a long day of contracting the back with this powerful back and chest-opening posture. Come to a comfortable standing position with feet hips-width apart, bring your hands up over your head with palms facing forward and thumbs hooked as you bend gently backwards and breathe deeply. "This is a powerful pose to free up tight chest muscles," Bielkus says.
Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
Fish pose is an excellent tension reducer, and can also be therapeutic for fatigue and anxiety, according to Yoga Journal. To come into the pose, sit up on your hips with legs stretched out together in front of you and toes pointed. Bring your hands under your hips and lean back to prop yourself up on your forearms. Then, lift the chest above the shoulders and drop the head back to the ground behind you. Breathe deeply and rest in the pose for 15-30 seconds. Fish pose "releases tension in the neck, throat, and head, helps stretch the chest muscles and opens up the lungs," Bielkus says.
Standing Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
A forward bend provides a soothing feeling of release -- making the pose therapeutic for stress and anxiety -- and with the added arm bind, this standing forward bend variation provides a deep shoulder stretch as well. Stand with your feet at hips-width distance, and slowly bend forward from the hips to come into the forward bend. To take the strain off the lower back, bend the knees slightly. Then, try adding an arm bind to stretch the shoulders: Interlace your hands at the lower back and stretch the arms over your head and hands towards the ground in front of you. For those with tight shoulders, hold a belt between your hands, allowing the shoulders to get a deep but less intense stretch. "By binding the hands, you also allow the arms to stretch and tight shoulders to relax," Bielkus says. "After sitting all day, it's a great idea to turn your world upside down and bring some blood back to the brain while getting a great stretch for the legs."
Cat & Cow Pose (Marjaryasana & Bitilasana)
Cat-cow tilts can be an effective headache reliever, in addition to opening up the back and stretching the spine. Start with hands and knees on the floor in a tabletop position with a neutral spine. On the inhale, round the spine and curve up into your cat pose (pictured above). On the exhale, arch the back and lift the chest to come into a cow pose. Repeat three to five times, focusing on the breath. "It also helps bring the neck back into the position over the spine -- people tend to protrude it forward, and this pose brings the vertebrae back to homeostasis," Bielkus says.
Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana)
This pose helps to open the hips and ease sciatica discomfort that can be made worse by sitting for long periods. Sit up tall with the soles of the feet touching and knees spreading open, bringing the feet in toward the pelvis and clasping your hands around your feet. Flap the knees up and down several times like butterfly wings, then sit still and focus the weight of the hips and thighs into the floor, easing pain in the sciatic nerve. "The sciatic nerve starts in the lower back and runs down both leg, and sciatic nerve pain can occur when the nerve is somehow compressed," Bielkus says. "Long commutes and sitting for long periods of time exacerbates it."
Slow Neck Stretches
To counter neck discomfort from staring down at a keyboard or phone, Bielkus recommends a few repetitions of yogic slow neck stretches. Sitting in a cross-legged pose, lean the head to the right and extend the left arm and hand toward the ground until you feel a deep stretch on the left side of the neck. Breathe deeply and hold for a few breath cycles, repeating on the other side. You can also try standing in Mountain Pose and stretching the neck to one side, gently pulling with the same hand. "This can also easily be done standing anywhere, even in a cubicle," she says. "It eases neck tension and strain."
Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
"This pose is an accessible back bend for most people," Bielkus says. "It lengthens the spine, opens up the chest and counteracts sitting hunched over all day." Lying on the floor, put your hands on the ground slightly in front of you and tuck the elbows into the chest. Push up into your hands, lifting into a slight backbend and drawing the shoulders down. Turn your gaze upwards, and try not to take any tension into the face or jaw.
Half Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)
The hips can get tight from long hours of sitting. To improve flexibility and range of motion in the hips, and open up the chest and shoulders, try a half pigeon pose. Start on your hands and knees in a tabletop position, sliding the right knee forward and left leg back, as pictured above, trying to bend the front leg at a 90-degree angle. Sit up tall, and on the exhale, hinge the chest forward and bring the arms out in front of you to feel a deep stretch. "A half pigeon is great for opening up the hips," Bielkus says. If you're particularly tight in the hips, try rolling up a blanket under the hips and sitting upright, and then gently hinging forward.
Child's Pose (Balasana)
"Child's pose helps us turn inside and slow our minds down," Virayoga founder Elena Brower recently told The Huffington Post. The foundational resting pose in many yoga classes, the soothing Child's Pose can help put the mind at ease while also gently opening up the back, hips and shoulders, according to Bielkus. Sit down with your legs folded beneath you, toes touching and knees spread apart from each other. Drape your chest down between your thighs, bringing your forehead to the floor and either extending the arms out in front of you or resting them by your sides. Breathe deeply and rest in the pose for as long as desired.
Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana)
"This pose opens the hips and groin and is very calming for the mind and body," Bielkus says. Happy Baby Pose is accessible even for beginners, but still provides an excellent stretch for the hip joints, which can get stiff from too much sitting. Lie down on your back, draw the knees into your chest and grab your feet from the inside, pulling them down so the knees extend on either side of your torso. If the stretch is too intense, grab behind your thighs. Try to bring the hips down to the floor. Breathe deeply and rock gently side to side, returning to stillness at your center for 30 seconds.
Sitali Breathing
This cooling breath is the perfect antidote to a long, stressful day. "It releases tension in body and mind, and helps us relieve stress and anger and brings us to a more balanced and clear state," says Bielkus. To perform this refreshing pranayama exercise, sit in a chair or on the floor in an easy crossed-legged position with your eyes closed. Stick your tongue out and curl up its outer edges. (If you're having trouble tongue curling, try your best and form a slight “O” with the mouth). Inhale through the mouth, letting the air pass over the tongue, feeling a cool breath, and then exhale through your nose. "Continue long rhythmic breathing for three minutes," she says. "You'll feel totally refreshed!"
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