With new online tools for working together, most likely you don't need everyone to think and speak at the same time, in the same room. You can do a simple poll in a Slack channel. You can exchange opinions in Google Docs comments. An all-hands meeting can be replaced with a well-designed slide deck. People can take their time to think and share their opinion when it's comfortable for them, on their own schedule. Meetings can now be asynchronous.
Obviously, these tools don't magically solve everything. People need to learn how to use them and everyone needs to adhere to the same set of rules and expectations: a common digital etiquette. The downside of Slack is that everyone is now in a meeting all the time. Handle with care.
Surely, it's hard to deny the advantages of speaking to someone in person. And indeed, complex issues and urgent matters are often best to handle face-to-face, with all the arsenal of both verbal and non-verbal communication that we're so lucky to have. But I daresay that most meeting are dealing with rather trivial matters, and do not require “being there” for an entire hour.
As Dr. Steven Rogelberg says in “The Surprising Science of Meetings,” the cost of a bad meeting goes beyond time and money. Meeting Recovery Syndrome (yes, it’s a real thing) puts a drain on employees’ happiness and productivity.
So, we all know we need to learn how to do meetings well. Or at least, do them better. The new challenge we face today is how meetings work in a new world of working — IRL and via Zoom, async or in-person. Ironically, the transition to having less and more productive meetings won't happen without a couple of very long meetings.
