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OK, so in this module, I'm really excited this because this is a module that's all up about upgrading your meeting culture.

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And you say, why is there an entire module dedicated to meetings?

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And the reason is, is that and I could give a lot of research here, but the reason is that over 80 percent of meetings are mostly considered to be unnecessary.

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I love what Mark Cuban said about this.

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The problem with meetings is there's people over meet and over call, over meet, over call.

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It kills so much time because meetings are, you know, are an obstacle for you to control your own schedule.

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And when you as a CEO drive a lot of meetings and it's so easy to say, well, let's just get that on the schedule, let's just touch points and so forth, which is OK.

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But you've got to keep going back and saying, is this still serving the purpose or did it just get a life?

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How many of you, maybe when you moved into a new home and there was a pile of boxes there in the garage and they got a life?

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And then after a few months, you don't even see them anymore.

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Right. You know what I'm talking about?

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Those things just get a life.

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Meetings get a life.

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Don't let them do that.

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You know. And so what he did, which I loved, is they had conference rooms in their conference rooms.

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They removed all the chairs.

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So he says it's amazing how quickly meetings are over with when no one has a chair or a place to sit.

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This took all the chairs out because he was trying to bring a point across.

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So there was one particular research in 2019 where over half the employee survey said that meetings are just distractions from getting their work done.

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And so there's a lot of different studies around that.

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The most dramatic one is that, you know, we've seen research, I think that Microsoft did research and showed that people are in three times more team meetings per week as compared to February 2020.

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That's only five years ago.

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So five years ago, people are in three times more team meetings.

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OK, so let's talk about this whole problem of death by meetings.

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So meetings destroy productivity.

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They don't really build or train leaders to be leaders.

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Nobody feels they have the authority to take the risk.

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When I step into I stepped into a company fairly recently and I went to a meeting and almost the entire company was at every meeting.

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And I was like, what's going on here? And that's very clear what's going on there.

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Nobody has the authority to make a decision.

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So we all have to make it together.

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Nobody knows whose role is what.

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Nobody has one line job description.

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So we all know, hey, when it's bound to that, I go to I go to John, I go to Mary, whatever it is.

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We don't know the roles. We don't know who's who can decide what.

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So in other words, we don't have a team of leaders.

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We just have a leader and a whole lot of people, you know, a lot of years basically just in different areas of the business.

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You don't need piles of years in different areas of the business.

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You need leaders to help you do what you do.

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So too many meetings definitely indicate no clear lines of authority or they're just overwhelmed.

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And they're so overwhelmed they have to start.

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Now, there are crisis times.

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There are times you pull people together.

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Just don't let that they don't let that box get a life.

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So to help with this, I did this in the early days of Brilliant, but I also did this recently.

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We know when I spent a little time with another company, I worked out how many people in the meeting.

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I knew our average dollar cost per person per hour.

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This is a quick analysis.

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You're going to take your total payroll, right?

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Work out, take your total payroll, divide it by the number of hours in the month.

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And then you have and then divided by the number of people you have.

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So in other words, what you're looking for is for each person sitting there for an hour, how much does that cost?

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Just an average. You don't have to say, well, this person's higher ranked than that person, which, by the way, means that if you're in a lot of the meetings, you just push that dollar value way up.

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I was speaking to a CEO and I said, could you please stop coming to the meetings?

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Is there my meetings? Yeah, but the dollar value goes way up because you're the highest paid guy.

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And see, what do you mean? And so there's one company we worked out that we were spending twenty four hundred dollars per person per hour.

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So I asked for two weeks for all the team leaders to do one simple exercise.

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Would you write down how many people were in the meeting and how long did the meeting last?

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We just did this quick little analysis to create self-awareness.

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So we worked out, oh, well, that meeting cost us ten grand.

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Well, that ten grand meeting with.

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And so I started to translate that into our most expensive product, which happened to be ten grand.

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So I said, OK, so we just blew through three products in that in this week.

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So we have to go make three sales to make up for the three meetings you just had.

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what? Wake up call. So just creating that self-awareness. And here's the thing

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you're trying to do. We're trying to get, you know, we're trying to come up with a

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simple way to help people function. So rule number one for your team. A meeting

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is the action of last resort. It's not that, it's not the first resort. How many

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people go, oh okay, let's just quickly get a meeting. A meeting should be the action

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of last resort. Now if you're starting something new and you need to kind of

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set a pace and you need to get a lot of coordination just to get it going, say

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you can you can set up, you know, scheduled meetings. That's because

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what you're trying to do is you're trying to lift it out of the lab and

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into steady-state mode. It's like, you know, in the lab you've got string and

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wire and stuff's blowing up and half the stuff doesn't work and then you finally

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bring it out and you put it into into the marketplace and now it goes into

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steady-state mode. You keep improving and so on. I'm talking not about lab mode

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but in steady-state mode where you're trying to put the, so right here,

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brilliant right now, we're trying to get this thing out of the lab, this

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ambassador program of ours and try to put it into steady-state condition. So

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there's three modes of meetings, very briefly. There's one-to-one, one-to-many,

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many-to-many. One-to-one, this kind of work is highly effective because if both

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people know how to do deep work or focused work together, this can be very

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productive type of meeting. One-to-one meetings, so I don't want to say all

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meetings are wrong, but one-to-one meetings can be very powerful. One-to-many

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is a lot more like in a training webinar style. Yes, there's Q&A and so

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on, but it's mostly moving from one person to many people and that can be

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effective for its particular purpose. If you're, you know, if you're training a

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team, when you do your edge training, when you get together and you go and do your

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leadership training in your team, that is a one-to-many. That's an empowerment. Make

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sure it is doing that. But the worst and the biggest offenders are the many-to-

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many. The least effective, least respectful and it's the default of most

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teams. Guys, honestly, you can double your productivity in a week if you

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try to get rid of these many-to-many meetings. Now, some of them are absolutely

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needed. So, if we're saying we're gonna pull the company together to do

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leadership training, that's a one-to-many. That's fine. People meeting together, hey

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we need to solve this, we need to fix that, we need to do that and they can

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take two hours together, do a focus work session, whatever. Even a deep work

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session, they can do that. Remember, focus work is on existing work. Deep work is on

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new and innovative work. We know the deal there. So, to help with that, we created a

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simple acronym we call FIRE. F-I-R-E. FIRE meetings. What does FIRE stand for?

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Focused, informative, respectful, effective. Let's break those down quickly. Because if

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we can create FIRE meetings, that will dramatically reduce the many-to-many

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meeting problem that we have. So, it's the many-to-many meetings that are killing

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your productivity. So, you know, as we're going through this, let's go through

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what's focused. So, use the right mode. Can this be a one-to-one meeting? Can this be

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a one-to-many meeting? Try at all, under all circumstances, to avoid the

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many-to-many. So, to help with that, we start every meeting, to make it focused,

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with this meeting will be successful if... Just try this for the next month. Every

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meeting that you're leading, start with that sentence. This meeting will be

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successful if... and explain. Because sometimes when you say what it'll be

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successful, and it's a half an hour meeting, you're 20 minutes in and you

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haven't even touched the topic of what will make the meeting successful. You

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know what I'm talking about? Right. So, this keeps... this doesn't wait 20 minutes

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to get to the point. It starts right at the beginning. So, this will make your

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meeting shorter. Then, another powerful idea is to use the five-star permission.

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Five-star permission means if you can leave after 10 minutes. If you get

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invited to a meeting, we give everybody permission in our organization to leave

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a meeting after... if they've been listening for 10 minutes and they can

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see that they're making no contribution, they shouldn't even be here, this is a

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waste of their time, without feeling rude or feeling bad, even if the CEO is

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running the meeting, oh they've heard the 10 minutes, you didn't get to your point,

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you didn't get to what makes the meeting successful, they may leave. It's a little

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disconcerting when your team members leave your meeting, but you get the point.

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and it's helpful, we all grow. So, the next thing is do not over-invite. I think my friend

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Glenn Hobbs has a great saying, don't do the just-in-case, do the just-in-time. In other

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words, don't invite everybody just-in-case they might need to know this. No, just-in-time.

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People who need to know this now. Then, set a shorter time than you think you need. Meetings

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will take up all available time plus five minutes. That's the truth, right? If you're

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going to go into a meeting and you know that in your crowd there's an opinion leader, does

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anybody know what I mean? They're not necessarily in your hierarchy, but when they say something,

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the whole meeting moves. The opinion leader. Give them a heads up if you think they're

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going to derail the meeting. Call them beforehand, take five minutes and say, hey, I'm introducing

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this new thing, I would love your support on this. Have a quick conversation, get into

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the meeting and let them help steer you. I have avoided a lot of trouble giving the opinion

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leader. They may not have the title, but they definitely have a weight of opinion that moves

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the group. Okay, so that's all under-focused, making it focused. Let's talk about how to

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make it informative. Ask yourself, what must they know? What is the key point? And then

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if you can, I like to just throw in a little bit of extra. Throw in a little joke, something

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light hearted, just keep it fun. Throw in a little fun thing, as long as that's not

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the main thing, but throw in something there. It just keeps it informative. Keep it informative.

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People walk away and say, wow, I learned something. I got the information I needed.

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Then let's get to respectful. How do we make our meetings respectful? Here's a few things.

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Number one, give people enough warning. When you call meetings, I know when you're in crisis

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sometimes you have to do this, but in the normal steady state condition of business,

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give people enough warning. Don't just tell them, hey, we're meeting in ten minutes. I

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know that when we're in a flurry of lab mode that happens. Fine, but that can't become

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the culture. Get on two minutes early and start exactly when you said you would because

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that's a powerful statement of respect to your team and what it says to every team.

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People who get on, on the hour, a minute late, two minutes late is a statement of disrespect

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if that's their habit. Not if it happens once in a while, that happens to us all. That's

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not what we're saying. There's grace for that, but when you start early. If we're doing

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community facing events like any sort of training, our team know you get on 20 minutes early.

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If it's a Zoom call, everybody's on three minutes early, we try to end three minutes

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early too so that they can be early for their next meeting. If you've ever had a meeting

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with our team and you've jumped on on the hour, we're all sitting there and we've been

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waiting for you for three minutes before you even got there. Why? Because the most

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respectful thing we can do to each other, it sends a very powerful cultural message

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to everyone in your team that you respect their time. We tell them to act like an owner,

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but then we start our meetings late. I had a CEO literally come to the meeting 20 to

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40 minutes late and I thought, and you're upset that there's no respect in the culture

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of your company. Well, of course, you're the one setting it. So if you can wrap up the

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meetings five or three minutes early, that gives them time to be two minutes early to

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the next meeting. Okay, guys, come prepared. Be respectful by coming prepared. Not just

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this meeting will be successful if, but if it's worksheets or notes or whatever, just

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say, oh, and I've already provided that to you or send it in the email. Finally, effective.

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So at the halfway mark of the meeting, say we're halfway through the meeting and we need

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to reach the objective of X. That's a great habit. So just peg your time. If you're in

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a half an hour meeting, 15 minutes in, just say, hey, we're halfway through. We still

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need to reach this objective and becoming clear about the next steps, who's doing what

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and when. That's a powerful way to end a meeting, especially if you've got long winded people

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who have to give you the entire life story before they can get to a point, you know.

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So before we do all that, you can just say, hey, guys, we're halfway through. We still

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have to get to this point. Now, here's a wonderful little surprise. As an executive, this is

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a powerful tool you can do. If you can make the meeting end early, then use this phrase.

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I would love to give you back your time. We're going to end now.

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are the most beautiful, respectful, and effective ways.

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And because our teams get on three minutes early,

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or at least two minutes early,

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we've literally had meetings get on,

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in one or two minutes we're finished,

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and the meeting ended before it started.

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The official time was on the clock,

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but we ended a few seconds earlier,

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and we're gonna give you back your time.

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Just this week, Bridget told her team,

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we normally meet on this particular meeting to prepare,

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but we're gonna give you back your time.

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And if your team are under pressure,

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finding ways to give your team their time back

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is a very great way to show your team

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that you care and that you're respectful of them.

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So, have FIRE meetings, right?

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Make them focused, make them informative,

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respectful, and effective.

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And I hope that will, you know,

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now if you, you have to build the culture in your company

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where people can say no to a meeting.

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You have to, that's incredibly important.

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And if you're gonna go over, say to your team,

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hey, we're gonna be five minutes extra,

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10 minutes extra, do I have your permission to go?

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And say, well, they work for me, I know,

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but that's part of being respectful.

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And they'll learn to really trust you.

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And if on that one day, when you're not watching the clock

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and you're in the middle of a deep work or whatever,

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and time got away from you,

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and you arrived five or six minutes late

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to your own meeting,

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your team will give you all the grace in the world

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because they will, well, they probably thought,

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you know, calling 911 by now,

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because they think you're dead on the side of the road

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because you're never late for meetings.

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But if you are, there's a tremendous amount of grace

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and respect you've created in your culture.

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And give them that five star permission.

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If you've been in this meeting for 10 minutes

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and feel like you have no contribution,

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you're welcome to leave without feeling rude.

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You don't feel bad.

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So, the question is, if I came to your company

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and you said, would you come and spend a day with us,

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or two days with us, and tell us what we can do,

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this is usually the first thing I'll go over.

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I'll go and listen to your meetings.

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And within one or two meetings,

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I will tell you the whole culture of the company

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from the way it runs its meetings.

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Because the company's meeting culture

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is the company's culture.

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So make your meetings fire meetings.

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Hope you enjoyed that.