OK, so in this module, I'm really excited this because this is a module that's all up about upgrading your meeting culture.
And you say, why is there an entire module dedicated to meetings?
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.
I love what Mark Cuban said about this.
The problem with meetings is there's people over meet and over call, over meet, over call.
It kills so much time because meetings are, you know, are an obstacle for you to control your own schedule.
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.
But you've got to keep going back and saying, is this still serving the purpose or did it just get a life?
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?
And then after a few months, you don't even see them anymore.
Right. You know what I'm talking about?
Those things just get a life.
Meetings get a life.
Don't let them do that.
You know. And so what he did, which I loved, is they had conference rooms in their conference rooms.
They removed all the chairs.
So he says it's amazing how quickly meetings are over with when no one has a chair or a place to sit.
This took all the chairs out because he was trying to bring a point across.
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.
And so there's a lot of different studies around that.
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.
That's only five years ago.
So five years ago, people are in three times more team meetings.
OK, so let's talk about this whole problem of death by meetings.
So meetings destroy productivity.
They don't really build or train leaders to be leaders.
Nobody feels they have the authority to take the risk.
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.
And I was like, what's going on here? And that's very clear what's going on there.
Nobody has the authority to make a decision.
So we all have to make it together.
Nobody knows whose role is what.
Nobody has one line job description.
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.
We don't know the roles. We don't know who's who can decide what.
So in other words, we don't have a team of leaders.
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.
You don't need piles of years in different areas of the business.
You need leaders to help you do what you do.
So too many meetings definitely indicate no clear lines of authority or they're just overwhelmed.
And they're so overwhelmed they have to start.
Now, there are crisis times.
There are times you pull people together.
Just don't let that they don't let that box get a life.
So to help with this, I did this in the early days of Brilliant, but I also did this recently.
We know when I spent a little time with another company, I worked out how many people in the meeting.
I knew our average dollar cost per person per hour.
This is a quick analysis.
You're going to take your total payroll, right?
Work out, take your total payroll, divide it by the number of hours in the month.
And then you have and then divided by the number of people you have.
So in other words, what you're looking for is for each person sitting there for an hour, how much does that cost?
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.
I was speaking to a CEO and I said, could you please stop coming to the meetings?
Is there my meetings? Yeah, but the dollar value goes way up because you're the highest paid guy.
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.
So I asked for two weeks for all the team leaders to do one simple exercise.
Would you write down how many people were in the meeting and how long did the meeting last?
We just did this quick little analysis to create self-awareness.
So we worked out, oh, well, that meeting cost us ten grand.
Well, that ten grand meeting with.
And so I started to translate that into our most expensive product, which happened to be ten grand.
So I said, OK, so we just blew through three products in that in this week.
So we have to go make three sales to make up for the three meetings you just had.
what? Wake up call. So just creating that self-awareness. And here's the thing
you're trying to do. We're trying to get, you know, we're trying to come up with a
simple way to help people function. So rule number one for your team. A meeting
is the action of last resort. It's not that, it's not the first resort. How many
people go, oh okay, let's just quickly get a meeting. A meeting should be the action
of last resort. Now if you're starting something new and you need to kind of
set a pace and you need to get a lot of coordination just to get it going, say
you can you can set up, you know, scheduled meetings. That's because
what you're trying to do is you're trying to lift it out of the lab and
into steady-state mode. It's like, you know, in the lab you've got string and
wire and stuff's blowing up and half the stuff doesn't work and then you finally
bring it out and you put it into into the marketplace and now it goes into
steady-state mode. You keep improving and so on. I'm talking not about lab mode
but in steady-state mode where you're trying to put the, so right here,
brilliant right now, we're trying to get this thing out of the lab, this
ambassador program of ours and try to put it into steady-state condition. So
there's three modes of meetings, very briefly. There's one-to-one, one-to-many,
many-to-many. One-to-one, this kind of work is highly effective because if both
people know how to do deep work or focused work together, this can be very
productive type of meeting. One-to-one meetings, so I don't want to say all
meetings are wrong, but one-to-one meetings can be very powerful. One-to-many
is a lot more like in a training webinar style. Yes, there's Q&A and so
on, but it's mostly moving from one person to many people and that can be
effective for its particular purpose. If you're, you know, if you're training a
team, when you do your edge training, when you get together and you go and do your
leadership training in your team, that is a one-to-many. That's an empowerment. Make
sure it is doing that. But the worst and the biggest offenders are the many-to-
many. The least effective, least respectful and it's the default of most
teams. Guys, honestly, you can double your productivity in a week if you
try to get rid of these many-to-many meetings. Now, some of them are absolutely
needed. So, if we're saying we're gonna pull the company together to do
leadership training, that's a one-to-many. That's fine. People meeting together, hey
we need to solve this, we need to fix that, we need to do that and they can
take two hours together, do a focus work session, whatever. Even a deep work
session, they can do that. Remember, focus work is on existing work. Deep work is on
new and innovative work. We know the deal there. So, to help with that, we created a
simple acronym we call FIRE. F-I-R-E. FIRE meetings. What does FIRE stand for?
Focused, informative, respectful, effective. Let's break those down quickly. Because if
we can create FIRE meetings, that will dramatically reduce the many-to-many
meeting problem that we have. So, it's the many-to-many meetings that are killing
your productivity. So, you know, as we're going through this, let's go through
what's focused. So, use the right mode. Can this be a one-to-one meeting? Can this be
a one-to-many meeting? Try at all, under all circumstances, to avoid the
many-to-many. So, to help with that, we start every meeting, to make it focused,
with this meeting will be successful if... Just try this for the next month. Every
meeting that you're leading, start with that sentence. This meeting will be
successful if... and explain. Because sometimes when you say what it'll be
successful, and it's a half an hour meeting, you're 20 minutes in and you
haven't even touched the topic of what will make the meeting successful. You
know what I'm talking about? Right. So, this keeps... this doesn't wait 20 minutes
to get to the point. It starts right at the beginning. So, this will make your
meeting shorter. Then, another powerful idea is to use the five-star permission.
Five-star permission means if you can leave after 10 minutes. If you get
invited to a meeting, we give everybody permission in our organization to leave
a meeting after... if they've been listening for 10 minutes and they can
see that they're making no contribution, they shouldn't even be here, this is a
waste of their time, without feeling rude or feeling bad, even if the CEO is
running the meeting, oh they've heard the 10 minutes, you didn't get to your point,
you didn't get to what makes the meeting successful, they may leave. It's a little
disconcerting when your team members leave your meeting, but you get the point.
and it's helpful, we all grow. So, the next thing is do not over-invite. I think my friend
Glenn Hobbs has a great saying, don't do the just-in-case, do the just-in-time. In other
words, don't invite everybody just-in-case they might need to know this. No, just-in-time.
People who need to know this now. Then, set a shorter time than you think you need. Meetings
will take up all available time plus five minutes. That's the truth, right? If you're
going to go into a meeting and you know that in your crowd there's an opinion leader, does
anybody know what I mean? They're not necessarily in your hierarchy, but when they say something,
the whole meeting moves. The opinion leader. Give them a heads up if you think they're
going to derail the meeting. Call them beforehand, take five minutes and say, hey, I'm introducing
this new thing, I would love your support on this. Have a quick conversation, get into
the meeting and let them help steer you. I have avoided a lot of trouble giving the opinion
leader. They may not have the title, but they definitely have a weight of opinion that moves
the group. Okay, so that's all under-focused, making it focused. Let's talk about how to
make it informative. Ask yourself, what must they know? What is the key point? And then
if you can, I like to just throw in a little bit of extra. Throw in a little joke, something
light hearted, just keep it fun. Throw in a little fun thing, as long as that's not
the main thing, but throw in something there. It just keeps it informative. Keep it informative.
People walk away and say, wow, I learned something. I got the information I needed.
Then let's get to respectful. How do we make our meetings respectful? Here's a few things.
Number one, give people enough warning. When you call meetings, I know when you're in crisis
sometimes you have to do this, but in the normal steady state condition of business,
give people enough warning. Don't just tell them, hey, we're meeting in ten minutes. I
know that when we're in a flurry of lab mode that happens. Fine, but that can't become
the culture. Get on two minutes early and start exactly when you said you would because
that's a powerful statement of respect to your team and what it says to every team.
People who get on, on the hour, a minute late, two minutes late is a statement of disrespect
if that's their habit. Not if it happens once in a while, that happens to us all. That's
not what we're saying. There's grace for that, but when you start early. If we're doing
community facing events like any sort of training, our team know you get on 20 minutes early.
If it's a Zoom call, everybody's on three minutes early, we try to end three minutes
early too so that they can be early for their next meeting. If you've ever had a meeting
with our team and you've jumped on on the hour, we're all sitting there and we've been
waiting for you for three minutes before you even got there. Why? Because the most
respectful thing we can do to each other, it sends a very powerful cultural message
to everyone in your team that you respect their time. We tell them to act like an owner,
but then we start our meetings late. I had a CEO literally come to the meeting 20 to
40 minutes late and I thought, and you're upset that there's no respect in the culture
of your company. Well, of course, you're the one setting it. So if you can wrap up the
meetings five or three minutes early, that gives them time to be two minutes early to
the next meeting. Okay, guys, come prepared. Be respectful by coming prepared. Not just
this meeting will be successful if, but if it's worksheets or notes or whatever, just
say, oh, and I've already provided that to you or send it in the email. Finally, effective.
So at the halfway mark of the meeting, say we're halfway through the meeting and we need
to reach the objective of X. That's a great habit. So just peg your time. If you're in
a half an hour meeting, 15 minutes in, just say, hey, we're halfway through. We still
need to reach this objective and becoming clear about the next steps, who's doing what
and when. That's a powerful way to end a meeting, especially if you've got long winded people
who have to give you the entire life story before they can get to a point, you know.
So before we do all that, you can just say, hey, guys, we're halfway through. We still
have to get to this point. Now, here's a wonderful little surprise. As an executive, this is
a powerful tool you can do. If you can make the meeting end early, then use this phrase.
I would love to give you back your time. We're going to end now.
are the most beautiful, respectful, and effective ways.
And because our teams get on three minutes early,
or at least two minutes early,
we've literally had meetings get on,
in one or two minutes we're finished,
and the meeting ended before it started.
The official time was on the clock,
but we ended a few seconds earlier,
and we're gonna give you back your time.
Just this week, Bridget told her team,
we normally meet on this particular meeting to prepare,
but we're gonna give you back your time.
And if your team are under pressure,
finding ways to give your team their time back
is a very great way to show your team
that you care and that you're respectful of them.
So, have FIRE meetings, right?
Make them focused, make them informative,
respectful, and effective.
And I hope that will, you know,
now if you, you have to build the culture in your company
where people can say no to a meeting.
You have to, that's incredibly important.
And if you're gonna go over, say to your team,
hey, we're gonna be five minutes extra,
10 minutes extra, do I have your permission to go?
And say, well, they work for me, I know,
but that's part of being respectful.
And they'll learn to really trust you.
And if on that one day, when you're not watching the clock
and you're in the middle of a deep work or whatever,
and time got away from you,
and you arrived five or six minutes late
to your own meeting,
your team will give you all the grace in the world
because they will, well, they probably thought,
you know, calling 911 by now,
because they think you're dead on the side of the road
because you're never late for meetings.
But if you are, there's a tremendous amount of grace
and respect you've created in your culture.
And give them that five star permission.
If you've been in this meeting for 10 minutes
and feel like you have no contribution,
you're welcome to leave without feeling rude.
You don't feel bad.
So, the question is, if I came to your company
and you said, would you come and spend a day with us,
or two days with us, and tell us what we can do,
this is usually the first thing I'll go over.
I'll go and listen to your meetings.
And within one or two meetings,
I will tell you the whole culture of the company
from the way it runs its meetings.
Because the company's meeting culture
is the company's culture.
So make your meetings fire meetings.
Hope you enjoyed that.