This week, I am joined by Joe Allen – a meeting scientist, professor of Industrial Organisational Psychology, Director at the Center for Meeting Effectiveness, and co-author of Suddenly Virtual.

Joe’s dedication to the science of how and why we meet is helping to advance organisations’ understanding of how to have better meetings and, for the last year or so, his focus has been on the sudden shift we had to make to online meetings.

Now, as we start to emerge from the throes of the pandemic, he is predicting a rise in hybrid meetings - in which some people are on-site and others are remote.

Together, we explore how we can have successful hybrid meetings and how we can make meetings of all formats run more smoothly, efficiently, and enjoyably.

Find out about:

• Why better meetings start with diagnosis, not solutions
• The three most common issues Joe finds in meetings – and their solutions
• Whether cancelling a meeting is helpful or harmful
• What lessons Joe learned in writing his book: Suddenly Virtual
• The positive and negative changes we’ve seen in the shift to online meetings
• Exploring hybrid meetings: their limitations, potential, and use cases
• How businesses and teams can prepare for hybrid meetings

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Questions and Answers

[01:01] You are a meeting scientist! What is that?

[03:16] Would you call yourself a facilitator?

[06:36] What gets in the way and creates the knowing vs. doing gap?

What are the top three issues you encounter with meetings?

[08:18] 1) Overload

[12:36] 2) Challenging personalities

[18:46] 3) Stale meetings

[24:25] What has been the impact of the switch to ‘Suddenly Virtual’?

[27:32] Did people at the top of the hierarchy struggle most with the shift to virtual?

[31:30] What is a hybrid meeting?

[34:17] What are the traps in hybrid meetings that facilitation can help us avoid?

[37:38] Do people naturally fall into ‘subgroups’ in hybrid meetings?

[43:47] Do hybrid meetings require more facilitation than other formats?

[45:20] What makes a meeting fail?

[52:00] What is the one thing you would like listeners to take away from this episode?

Links

Joe’s website

Joe’s new book, Suddenly Virtual

The Meeting by Helen B. Schwartzman

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