Creating Mindful Meetings

Develop strategies that create positive meeting containers, respect everyone's time, and set clear expectations. Four tips are shared to create more meaningful connection time. The series mindgen@work provides tips from mindfulness, meditation, Yoga and Ayurveda for your workspace and life.

Leave a comment with your favorite mindful meeting tip- would love to know what works for you.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Amy J.

Thanks for being my guest for MindGen at work.

This is a series of talks that takes tips from mindfulness,

Meditation,

Yoga,

And Arya Veda and teaches you how to apply them into your workspace and into your life.

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One thing that used to really get under my skin was attending meetings.

And really,

When I got into management,

That is what my whole day ended up being,

Was meeting after meeting after meeting with often overlapping meetings in between.

And it wasn't actually possible for me to attend everything.

I had to get real about where my time was of value and to also respect my time so that I had transition periods,

I had time for my own self-care during the day.

My most frustrating meeting looked like this.

I was running across the office to get from one meeting to another.

When I had arrived,

There was no agenda.

Half of the participants were on their cell phones,

Including my boss.

Two managers were arguing about resources.

There were typical people interjecting their thoughts.

And then there were those that never talked and just sat silent.

At the end of the meeting,

There was no resolution to any issue.

My heart was racing from frustration.

This scenario had began to feel all too familiar.

Why were so many meetings ineffective?

I know this issue was not just at my workplace.

This was across organizations and industries.

So I really wanted to imagine what would a meeting look like if I didn't have to rush to arrive to it,

That there were signs of respect from everyone,

That it felt like a good use of time and that there were clear expectations.

Applying mindfulness to work in part means bringing awareness to the dynamics that aren't working well.

You have to be real about that with yourself and your coworkers.

All of our human elements also need to be acknowledged.

We all have different responsibilities.

We have different skill sets and different value that we're going to bring into the meetings.

And the environment needs to be really supportive and brave so that people can bring their constructive thoughts into that creating moment.

Frequent ineffective meetings just make life miserable for you and your coworkers.

There's frustration from feeling like your time is wasted or not respected and is not isolated to the meeting.

It spills over into other aspects of work.

So today I'm just going to share four quick tips for what you might do to start running a more mindful meeting.

And maybe you already do some of these.

I would love to hear in the comments your favorite things that you add to your meeting to make them more meaningful.

The first for me was a big one,

Was looking at reoccurring meetings and evaluating if that time block was actually effective.

I had to be real,

As I mentioned,

That most of my meetings were constantly in 30 or 60 minute time blocks,

Which really is the default setting in most electronic and manual planners.

And it was difficult for me to arrive on time for some meetings or even stay through a whole meeting when I had meetings back to back.

There was no transition period.

So taking a look at your own work calendar or any meetings that you have influence over,

Can you add some transition time for people potentially ending longer meetings five to ten minutes early in the calendar,

Not just have a 60 minute time block and end it early,

But only schedule your meeting for 50 minutes.

That way participants can have some time to wrap up what was discussed in that meeting and prepare themselves for their next task.

Some of the people in the meeting may be going back and doing field work and others are going to be jumping to their next meeting.

Really consider how long the agenda is and how long that you think it needs to be covered in.

Usually when we have reoccurring time blocks,

We fill them no matter what.

Sometimes it can be helpful to have that camaraderie in that conversation,

But there's going to be weeks and months where it's just a waste of everybody's time.

So if there's any place in the schedule where you can give yourself or your coworkers time back in their day,

Evaluate that.

The next would be your meeting format.

Are you happy with how the energy of the meeting typically runs?

I would say when people are entering a meeting,

It's nice to find something to do to sort of ground everyone in the moment and create that energy that whatever you just came from,

You can leave behind and to set an intention for what this meeting is going to look like.

A couple of things that are popular to do as a grounding mechanism that can be really quick.

One would be offering each meeting start with a minute of silence.

That may feel a little uncomfortable at first,

But it can be very valuable.

And really the point of this minute of silence would allow people to just release what they came from and set an intention for why they are in that current meeting.

And that way the focus switches over to this next task.

Another way might be to round robin something good that happened that day.

Potentially if you want to thank any of your coworkers for something they helped you with,

You could change this up.

But that's starting to create your container for your meeting.

Then you're going to jump into whatever your meeting topic is.

So have an agenda.

Have clear objectives.

If you're organized and you have the ability to send out the agenda ahead of time,

That can be even more valuable because it allows participants to prepare for topics and they can even choose if there's value in attending.

As I mentioned as a manager,

I was often invited to so many meetings I could not attend them all.

So I did have to pick and choose where I thought either I needed to help lend a voice or I needed to download information in order to pass it on to other people.

And then consider your ending.

You want to end your meeting on a good note,

But also clear.

Have a recap of the commitments and an action plan.

Unless you have an administrative assistant,

I know it is so difficult to type up your meeting minutes and send everybody what they're supposed to do.

So unless you need to record meetings for quality purposes,

Just make it really clear at the end of the meeting what people are responsible for and when they should have it completed.

The next would be to consider how you can create a supportive environment.

The biggest ways people feel disrespected in meetings is when they see other people multitasking.

But if you requested to be at a meeting and you found value in coming and taking up a seat in that space,

That topic or resolution probably needs you.

So stay present.

Try to check all electronic devices at the door.

If devices are used to take notes,

Close out all of your other applications and turn off notifications.

Scrolling and checking email is a huge distraction for everyone.

There's disrespect shown for anyone who might be talking during that time and your brain actually can't handle listening and reading or responding to material online.

You are going to miss something.

The other would be to assign a facilitator to run each meeting,

Especially tense or difficult ones.

And if you're a manager arranging meetings,

This doesn't always have to be you.

An ideal facilitator would be someone who might not have a personal agenda at stake based on the topic or objectives.

A good facilitator would help bring awareness to what is the bigger picture that needs to be accomplished,

Could try to stay neutral and set aside emotions or desired outcomes,

Encourage everybody to create a supportive environment.

Even if difficult issues are being brought to the table,

There could be an emphasis of positive as well as our brain naturally is going to pick apart all of the negative things.

A facilitator can help acknowledge everybody's ideas or even pick up on any discomfort that might be in the room,

Can help guide consensus when possible,

And help set priorities.

I hope by examining your schedule,

Your format,

The level of constructive respect in meetings and having a facilitator that there might be at least one thing you picked up on here that you could bring to your meetings to make them more effective.

Sending good vibes for your next meeting.

Bye.

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