51. Raise energy and reduce 'meeting fatigue' by making meetings optional - or even Opt-In!
Giving people choice and responsibility help them stay energised, cope with overload (and underload) and make the best use of their time.
One of the most important aspect of Host Leadership is to work with the soft power of invitation rather than the hard power of force. In team and organisational terms, this means offering people choices that serve them and others well, and then basically trusting them to use that choice. One of the areas where this stance can have an immediate impact is in meeting organisation.
New research into meeting cognitive overload and underload
Towards the end of last year I received a piece from the excellent New Rules For Work Lab about the latest findings into how people react in online meetings. It turns out that different people experience different kinds of fatigue, and it’s worse online than in person. There’s Active Fatigue, where people are over stressed with activity, and Passive Fatigue, where folk are bored and losing the will to live.
Both of these depend on engagement - but, the ways to deal with them are in conflict. To help active fatigue, it’s good to tune out and turn your camera off. But with passive fatigue, increasing engagement and turning your camera ON will help. As the meeting leader/facilitator it’s tough or even impossible to keep everyone engaged at the right level - particularly as different folks are having differnet experiences of the same meeting! Read the piece from New Rules For Work Lab here.
Make meetings optional
The good people at New Rules For Work Lab have a way to work with this challenging situation - make meetings optional! They think (and they’re right) that meetings should be energising in a positive way. Both the under-stressed and the over-stressed are not finding this. So one route is to give people the choice to weigh up the importance of the meeting (which relates to the purpose of the meeting) alongside everything else and make their own call. I like very much their idea of making the name of the meeting the same as the purpose, so people are helped to make their choice, and also ‘opening the escape hatch’ by being clear beforehand and during the meeting that people can leave. Echoes of Open Space Technology here, a favourite way of organising about which I have written before.
My solution: Opt-In Meetings
I think that making meetings optional is an excellent way to organise humanely AND effectively (which is what we talk about here on this Substack). However, I am proposing something even more open than that: Opt-In Meetings. Not only do your regulars not have to come, but you can open it up to anyone in your organisation/field/area who IS interested. This is a great way to get new energy into a project as well as finding new stakeholders, participants and supporters.
It seems to me that Opt-In Meetings, like Open Space, can benefit from a clear stucture that’s known to all. An Opt-In meeting goes even further in some ways than the New Rules For Work proposal - you publicise your meeting widely and invite anyone interested to come along!
This particular structure was devised by Mark McKergow, Helen Bailey and Jenny Clarke (Host Leadership), Robbe Richmand (Culture Hackers) and Cathy Brown (Engage for Success) in 2015. We look on it as one small practical tool in the pursuit of host leadership, engaged organisations and a better workplace. It is offered as an open source initiative to the world to experiment with, to make all our lives more worthwhile.
Guide to Opt-In Meetings
Is your diary crammed with meetings? Do you find yourself sitting in meeting making no contribution? Would you prefer to have only energised and engaged people joining your meetings? Then declare your next meeting an ‘Opt In Meeting’.
More and more companies are making meetings optional. By opening up choice you can really make the most of your own time – and everyone else’s. Does this meeting look vital, relevant or intriguing? Then join. If the topic is neither relevant nor intriguing – don’t join. It’s that simple. The benefits – saving time, diaries freed up, making the best use of valuable resources, making people think before both calling a meeting and deciding to join it.
How to do it? Follow the rules below. Simply tell people that your meeting will be held as an Opt In Meeting. Start thinking of organising your meeting like throwing a party – you are the host, you invite people to be your guests and they will come if it seems like it’s worthwhile. Download and use the Opt In Meeting logo here (or with QR code link to this page here) to help people see what you’re doing.
The rules of an Opt-In Meeting:
As the host or ‘meeting-thrower’, you will:
Make your meeting open to all
Offer a clear purpose and desired result of the meeting in the invitation
Send out the invitation widely, naming a space, start time and latest stop time
Organise a suitable space for the meeting and be there on time
Welcome everyone who comes as a valuable contributor
Carry out the meeting as quickly as possible, but no quicker
Not get down on people who don’t come – their priorities matter too.
As a guest or participant, you will:
Only choose to come if the meeting is an excellent use of your time
Be there at the advertised start time
Focus on contributing and learning as much as you can
Feel free to leave at any time if you are no longer learning or contributing
Know that any next steps agreed at the meeting will be implemented.
If you would really like to be at the meeting but can’t make it, you can contact the host in advance and let them know your ideas.
Tips to using Opt-In Meetings for the host:
Make your invitation clear, relevant and intriguing
Use the Opt-In Meetings logo and QR code so people can find out what they are expected to do
Be realistic about what you can achieve in a single meeting
Send the invitation as widely as possible – you may find people you don’t know who are keen to contribute
Thank people for both coming and contributing. If they leave partway through, thank them again – they have other things to be doing
Remember that if no-one shows up, your meeting didn’t look that relevant or intriguing… learn for next time. Plus, you can still decide some next steps for yourself and begin to put them into action.
Tips to using Opt-In Meetings for the participants/guests
Let the host know you intend to come
If things intervene on the day, let the host know on the day
Come prepared
Give space to others as well as putting forward your views – play nicely
If you’ve said your piece and learned all you need to, you can leave. Please do so respectfully and openly.
Example invitation
Improving the membership scheme – Monday 5th November, Atrium Room B
Our membership scheme has been quite a success since it launched last year. I am keen to build on this by targetting new groups and adding to the membership benefits available. At this meeting I would like to
Identify priority new groups to be targetted
Review the current benefits in relation to the new groups
Identify additional relevant benefits we can offer to both new and existing members
The meeting will be held as an Opt In Meeting, in Atrium Room B from 11.30-12.30 on Monday 5th November. Anyone interested is welcome to join us. Let me know if you’d like to come. You can review the Opt In Meeting rules at https://hostleadership.com/about/opt-in-meetings/ or just scan the QR code attached.
Best wishes, Emily McKenna, Membership Co-ordinator
Conclusions
Making meeting Opt-In, or simply optional, is a great way to get talking with the people who care about the topic, and avoid stressing everyone else. And, if few or even no people show up, that’s a sign from the universe that maybe your topic isn’t as important to others as you think it is, or that you are not conveying the value and benefits of it in your invitation.
Away with the tyranny of dull endess ‘compulsory’ meetings! Make your meetings optional and see how it goes. Do let me know here on the comments below.
Dates and Mates
To meet me to share, converse and invent new ways to work invitationally, join me at the Host Leadership Gathering, 3-4 June 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The hosts will be welcoming, the meeting venue is modern, the people enthusiastic and the social time with be relaxing and energising all at once! Your presence is definitley requested. RSVP at https://hostleadership.ahamoments.eu/. There also a blog about the event. Details of the programme will be up soon.
New Rules For Work Labs are here on Substack. They charge for subscriptions but as far as I can see all their pieces are free to read on the website. Well worth a look. They’re also on Linkedin.
https://labs.newrulesforwork.com
Love the idea of this Mark as someone who has spent far too much time in meetings I shouldn’t have been in but curious about your thoughts on those who love meetings as it makes them busy without having to be productive?