Yesterday, we looked at one of author and entrepreneur Jason Fried’s biggest gripes about the modern workplace: Interruptions, including those caused by managers who check in at inopportune times. But those interruptions are small potatoes compared to the most disruptive thing managers tend to do: Call meetings.
“Meetings are just toxic, terrible, poisonous things during the day at work,” Fried says.
Fried made his comments during a recent talk at the TEDxMidwest conference.
“You would never see a spontaneous meeting called by employees; it doesn’t work that way. The manager calls the meeting, so the employees can all come together, and it’s an incredibly disruptive thing to do to people,” he says.
Build a better supervisor — learn how next week.
What if these people are in the middle of something important? It’s unlikely that they’ll all be at a good stopping point right when the meeting starts. He also points out that a one-hour meeting involving ten people is not actually a one-hour meeting: It’s a ten-hour meeting — ten hours of productivity taken from the rest of the organization.
Is it worth it? Very rarely, Fried says. “Meetings are places to go to talk about things you’re supposed to be doing later.” Plus, meetings tend to mushroom into even more meetings and more time wasted.
So what’s the solution? Fried has three suggestions for the modern workforce:
1. No-talk Thursdays. Or even just start with one “no-talk afternoon” per month, Fried suggests. “Giving someone four hours of uninterrupted time is the best gift you can give anybody at work. It’s better than a computer.”
How to transform new supervisors into the bosses everyone wants to work for.
2. Get passive. Replace active communication (face-to-face discussions and meetings) with more passive forms of communication like email and IM, which can be switched off and therefore allow people to respond on their own schedule.
3. And if you have a meeting coming up… “If you have the power, just cancel that next meeting… Just don’t have it. I don’t mean move it; I mean, erase it from memory — it’s gone. And you’ll find out that everything will be just fine.”
Build a Better Supervisor: How To Identify and Develop the Core Skills for Success
Even if they know not to call a lot of pointless meetings, great employees don’t automatically make great supervisors. There’s a whole lot they need to learn first about people management, paperwork, and compliance with various state and federal laws.
If your new supervisors — your “first line of defense” — aren’t fully up to speed, you’re setting yourself up for costly (and preventable) turnover, as well as potentially devastating lawsuits brought by disgruntled employees and former employees.
Join us next Wednesday, April 6 — and bring your new supervisors along — for an in-depth webinar all about transforming new supervisors into the bosses everyone wants to work for. You’ll learn:
- The basic employment laws your new supervisors need a firm handle on
- Risky situations that supervisors should be trained to bring to HR rather than trying to handle themselves
- Essential team-building and problem-solving skills
- Communication techniques that can effectively defuse potentially explosive employee conflicts
- How to prepare your new supervisors for the transition from “one of the guys” to “leader of the pack”
- Current hot-button legal issues your new supervisors need to be aware of, including hiring bias and affirmative action
Download your free copy of How To Survive an Employee Lawsuit: 10 Tips for Success today!
Have you tried no-talk Thursdays? No-meeting Mondays? If so, we’d love to know how it worked out–let us know!
Have you tried no-talk Thursdays? No-meeting Mondays? If so, we’d love to know how it worked out–let us know!