I really enjoy Freakonomics, and I thought the latest episode I listened to was particularly useful.
I want to listen again, but here are a few of the ideas I picked up from it:
- When surveyed, most people say they would like to attend more meetings, but paradoxically they don’t rate the meetings they do attend as very valuable.
- The leader of a meeting always rates the meeting as more successful and valuable than the other attendees do. I know that I definitely suffer from this one!
And here are some of the tips to make meetings better…
- Make the agenda a list of questions. If it isn’t a question, what’s the point in meeting to discuss it?
- Think carefully about exactly who needs to be at the meeting: if you’ve written the agenda as questions, this can make it easier to work out who needs to be there. Different people may attend different sections of the meeting.
- The average length of meeting in the world is one hour. This is due to scheduling tools such as office, but in the case of teaching it is particularly driven by the timetable. It’s better to think about how long is actually required. Leaving a shorter time than you think it will take may be a good idea: see Parkinson’s Law.
- Most human gatherings suffer more from unhealthy peace than unhealthy conflict. The most transformational meeting participant is both a “smoother overer” and a “troublemakers”.
- Start a meeting by telling someone sitting near you about a good part of your week (a rose) and something that hasn’t gone well (a thorn). This introduction of the ‘thorn’ can help to encourage people to be more open in sharing their opinions.