5 ways to beat meeting overload

5 Ways to Beat Meeting Overload - or zombie meetings will get you!

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Fixing Broken Work/A New Skill/Meet Less/Café Work Life/Productivity Theatre/Work Week Insights

Fixing the broken bits of work 

Will AI fix work? It’s a great question that new ways of working people are asking and wondering about. 

In Microsoft’s latest Work Trends Index Report we get to see how much we’re:

- drowning in information 

- detesting meetings … still

- wishing work had no meetings at all, and 

- innovating, not. 

Artificial intelligence provides opportunities to relieve us of

▫️heavy work

▫️dreary work

▫️preparatory work

▫️first draft work 

and 

▫️routine/repetitive work. 

And this could give us more time to be creative in our work. 

Although the promise of ‘if this then that’ in the history of work always delivered just another load of other work for us to do in its place.)

Grab a coffee, sit and read the report. Better still, get AI to do something for you. 

Depending where you are on the AI curve, you could get AI to:

▫️read it for you

▫️provide a 100 word summary 

▫️select the three most relevant quotes 

▫️generate a list of six action points 

▫️tell you which parts you should be most worried about

▫️start working automatically with you on your work day, schedule, meetings, presentations and reports 

▫️redesign your work flow to incorporate AI wherever possible 

and 

… head to the beach. 

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A new skill to learn 

No part of work is immune from the requirement to learn some new skills now and then. 

Any skill to be learnt can take a little time. And some of us give up when the first 10 mins experimenting or trying don’t go so well! 

We can be perfectionists when we don’t meet our own expectations of it working perfectly … immediately. 

If you’re still clutching onto your electric typewriter, floppy disk or dot matrix printer, keep on scrolling. 

But otherwise, there are some opportunities to tinker, play and begin learning how to make use of artificial intelligence. These are skills connected with the use, guidance, prompting and re-prompting, assessing and editing of AI. 

Skills like : Questioning, briefing, querying, framing, directing, finessing, checking, editing — they’re all skills we can be applying for working with the next tech that’s here. 

Give it a little time. No need to rush or be impatient. Bit by bit. Try it again. Read a bit more. Try something different. 

Learning is not a perfect process.

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Meet less. More happy. 

It’s one of the quickest ways to free up time in a packed schedule. And an immediate way to release some of the pressure of having too much on. 

Delete, remove and decline meetings. 

I’ve called this out as a key strategy in my book ‘Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work’. 

More research data is revealing the sweet spot of meeting less and the benefits to be gained. 

Three ways you can meet less for more happy are:

▫️check in messages rather than check in meetings 

▫️meet only when absolutely necessary, and

▫️let people opt out. 

These are some of the modern evolutions to work and changes occurring to the way we do work. 

See more in this piece from Inc. Australia by Minda Zetlin 

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NOW SHOWING at Productivity Theatre 

Quick … read something, look busy. 

Leave your laptop on, open and the screen set to never sleep. 

Anecdotes, research and reports about how employees are ‘performing’ to look busy, could be in response to recent layoff fears or perhaps the pressure of returning to the office.  

But this show has been going on for decades. It’s a classic!

Ron, a colleague I worked with years ago had some curious advice for me on the first day of my new job. He said, “Here’s how to look busy around here: walk around the office, factory or site quickly … with speed and pace … swing your arms. 

“Carry with you a single piece of A4 paper with something, anything printed on it,” he said. “Always make it look like you’re going somewhere, to see someone, to do something.” Thanks Ron. 

He was the laziest person I’d ever worked with. He did so little at work, counting the weeks, months and years until he could get a redundancy payout and retire with his beloved fishing rod. What a couple : Ron and Rod. 

A colleague in another organisation used to slot in cross-country skiing on the nearby slopes when their employer thought they were out on the road seeing clients and making sales calls. 

I know of people who have an app set to automatically tap their keyboard so it looks like they’re logged on and on duty. The range and examples of ‘slacking off’ at work are broad indeed. 

Appearing busy when we’re not isn’t new. 

Maybe there’s just less people walking around offices holding pieces of paper these days because most of their work is online, digital and tech based. We just need to gaze into a screen. 

The creative and contemporary performances screening in Productivity Theatre today are:

▫️rapidly replying to emails to show you’re there

▫️attending pointless or irrelevant meetings

and

▫️scheduling emails to be sent at later times.

Whatever you do — or don’t do — at Productivity Theatre, it’s all a daily performance. 

Read more in this piece by Chloe Berger in Fortune 

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The café work life

Also becoming known as ‘work from hospo’ (hospitality) this third space or third place is another option in the working from home era. 

Read more in this piece by Tracey Cheung in The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald to see why cafes, restaurants and other hospitality options are working so well for some remote workers. 

There are benefits such as :

▫️Comfort

▫️Convenience

▫️Social Connection 

▫️Coffee, Catering and Snacks

▫️A new location for new ideas

▫️Ambience, mood and vibe

▫️A mental reset

and more. 

For the venues, there’s an income stream at times they might usually be a little quiet.  

For me, the ambient noise of the buzz of a cafe is a clear winner. 

The whirrrrr of the coffee machine, the clatter of crockery and the light chatter of people - oh, and the often barely noticeable music - has shown to be the most magnificent combination for idea generation and creativity. 

It’s why apps like Coffitivity have been popular, to try and recreate that buzz and ambience. 

Are you are third place kind of person? 

And a shout out to the team at Third Place who have made moving between venues via a membership even easier. 

How to #meetless/Asynchronous Work/Workplace HR Trends/Watch for meeting hogs/Going for good enough

The best work resolution to make …

If you’re going to make a resolution about work this year, let it be this:

Resolve to reduce your work meetings this year. 

Meet less. Way less. 

Tally up last year’s meetings if you need to work out what ‘less’ would mean. And make sure it’s less by a lot. 

Being at the request of so many meeting invites weighs heavily on our time, attention and energy. 

And the drain is exaggerated when the things we want and need to do remain undone and incomplete. Exhaustion quickly returns after a day of back-to-back meetings with barely a break. And they are mostly dull, disengaging experiences that don’t facilitate active participation and contribution. 

Yes, many meetings could have been an email. Or not held at all. Or for this resolution … not attended at all. 

It could have been a chat message or a shared document or a first draft shared for comments. 

💥Resolve, vow and promise to decline invites more than you ever have before. 

💥Resolve to hold your nerve if you feel guilty about it or are shamed in to attending because a colleague wants you there … pleeeeese. 

💥And see this instead, as progressing towards more modern work. 

It is modern work that uses less dated and wasteful tools for control and communication, and uses more open tools for collaboration and contribution. 

Delete the time and energy drain that is the ‘have you got a moment’ or ‘it will only take a few mins’ or ‘can you just come to this meeting’. 

I’ll share more in the coming weeks on how to bring this resolution to practical reality. 

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Meet = sync  Meet less = async 

Here’s how to start achieving a #meetless resolution this year:

⬇️ DECREASE the amount of SYNCHRONOUS work you do with others : these are the meetings, quick chats, interviews, conversations where you all have to be there at the same time 

and … 

⬆️ INCREASE the amount of ASYNCHRONOUS work you do with others : this is work you do at times and in ways that suit you, like contribute to shared documents and files, have uninterrupted work time, use chat and messaging, email and video. 

Asynchronous ways of working provide HUGE flexibility, allowing people to contribute and work in ways and times that suit them. 

Asynchronous work can become more inclusive, more considerate and allow people more time to think and contribute … rather than the control, theatre and waste of an ‘everybody-now-meeting’. 

Save synchronous meetings for the times that really, truly matter and that absolutely need to be done with others, all at the same time. 

Yes, you still have meetings but stop meeting as the default action to progress work. 

It’s vital to learn and understand more about how to work asynchronously. 

It’s the best way to reduce pressure, stress and overwhelm and increase progress, wellbeing and engagement. 

Want to learn more…?

Get ‘Sync Async : Making progress easier in the changing world of work’ — for the tools, techniques and ways to help you #meetless and achieve the outcomes and results you’re aiming for. 

It’s available as an ebook and paperback wherever you get your books. 

Make #meetless something you’ll do this year - as a leader, manager, colleague and friend. 

Sync Async : Making progress easier in the changing world of work

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Workplace HR Trends 

It’s a great time to read about foresight and what we think might evolve or occur in workplaces and spaces. 

Review and consider how you’ll approach the year, what priorities and plans could be impacted and how you’ll evolve strategies, styles and your approach to work. 

The insights for Human Resources trends include things like: 

. Wellbeing

. Skills-based hiring

. Flexibility 

. Hybrid working and hybrid learning

. Reporting 

. Office redesign 

. Blended workforce

. Burnout 

Read more here.

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SNORT : Meeting hogs are on notice

There’s a perfect environment that meeting hogs love to create, and you need to be alert to it. 

Here are 4 signs a meeting hog is in the area :

🐽They call lots of meetings 

🐽They invite lots of people 

🐽They drone on for too long

🐽They don’t let many people speak, participate or contribute. 

The meeting hog’s work life revolves around all talk and no work. 

Meeting hogs love taking people away from their work activities and holding and controlling them like an audience at a performance. But the ‘show’ is a bad one. Stay alert! Keep an eye out for the meeting hog. 

They’ll be: 

🐽getting ready with committees and working groups

🐽suggesting regular status updates

🐽scheduling weekly check-ins

🐽setting up fortnightly rhythms and meeting cycles

and 

🐽sending out recurring appointments. 

But stay strong. 

This year aim to #meetless - for your own well-being, productivity, impact and motivation. 

I’ll share techniques to make this strong and positive change in your work life. Tackling and responding to the meeting hog is one of the key strategies you’ll need. 

Meetings are becoming old ways of working. Sure, not all meetings, but many … most of them. And meeting hogs love to argue for the importance of their meetings. 

Hold an intention to #meetless - First, stay alert to meeting hogs. 

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The good/bad trait to shift this year

If there’s a mindset you’d like to shift in 2023 … consider understanding and finding a replacement for perfectionism. 

This good/bad trait that’s often shared in job interviews when we’re asked about our weaknesses, isn’t worth the effort it drains from us. 

There’s no connection between perfectionism and high performance. *gulp*

And perfectionism can actually be behind anxiety, depression, overwork, rework, stress, and other issues we suffer from. 

The antidote, solution or alternative is going for good enough. But how do you do that? 

‘ish:The problem with our pursuit for perfection and the life-changing practice of good enough’ shares the research, stories, stats, steps and insight on how to think and work in ways that don’t require perfect anything. 

There are other, better ways to think and work. 

This award-winning book is available in paperback, audio and e-book - wherever you get your books. Have you read it yet ... or listened to it? 

It’s been recommended by many people who have experienced the significant shift it presents. If you’re up for it, it’s an easy read and listen. 

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All the remote things Podcast

It was a pleasure to join a recent podcast episode of ‘All the Remote Things’ with Tony Ponton. 

We talked through different concepts, ideas and thinking, plus a little about my background in communications and agile ways of working. I shared some tips on better ways of working!

Watch or listen to the full episode here.

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Unleashing Brilliance Podcast

And more podcastness right here with Janine Garner's Unleashing Brilliance. It was so great to have a conversation about imperfection, new ways of thinking and working, creativity and collaboration. Thanks Janine!

Listen here.