CM 127: Steven Rogelberg on Making Meetings Great

How can we change boring, unproductive meetings into gatherings no one would want to miss?

Many of us dread meetings, even when we’re the ones leading them! But there are steps we can take to make them great – steps Steven Rogelberg, author of the book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance,has been studying for over two decades.

Though some argue we should get rid of meetings, Steven sees them as essential: “The elimination of meetings is a false goal. Without meetings, employee voice is quieted. Your ability to coordinate, communicate and truly engage in consensus decision making – they’re all compromised without meetings. . . the true goal is to eliminate bad meetings.”

In this interview, Steven shares simple approaches we can take to make meetings great. He offers tips on how to structure meetings to achieve our goals, how to determine who needs to attend, and how to manage meeting energy. For example, he recommends shifting our next meeting agenda from a list of topics to a set of questions. By doing this, he explains, “Now you are actually very clear. You will be done with this meeting when these questions are answered.”

Steven is an award-winning Professor of Organizational Science, Management, and Psychology at the University of North Carolina. His work has been profiled by the Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal, and he’s worked with organizations such as IBM, TIAA and Procter & Gamble.

Episode Links

@stevenrogelberg

Meeting recovery syndrome

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

Parkinson’s Law

Klaxoon

Steven’s book was listed as the #1 leadership book to watch in 2019 in the Washington Post and the #1 business book everyone will be reading in Business Insider

You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net.

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