Episode 35: Why Meetings Fail with Oscar Santalo

Importance of Meetings

•Establishes alignment: allows for discussion of complex issues and for the team to get on the same page.

• Helps leaders make better decisions when gaining insight from the team •
• Builds stronger relationships: free-flowing ideas and personal interaction which can increase work success and productivity.
• Information exchange: Communicate company updates and process changes
• Promotes inclusion: avenue to freely express thoughts and ideas
• Facilitates innovation: allows team to showcase critical thinking and creativity
• Opportunity to share feedback: a great way to learn more about your team and areas you can improve
• Improve employee engagement: when team members feel that their input is considered or solicited, it helps them feel valued about the job equals more productivity

What is the problem?

• Feeling overwhelmed by meeting
• No agenda
• No advanced communication
• No interaction
• Meeting length and frequency
• Conflicting opinions get out of control
• Not summarizing actions

• Regardless of meeting type, whether formal or informal, traditional or agile, face-to-face or electronically, they feel overwhelmed
• No agenda means no purpose for the meeting.
• No clear plan and goal of what you want to achieve.
• No advanced communication can lead to people arriving unprepared or not showing up at all
• No interaction as in talking at team members and not promoting opportunities for feedback
• Executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours per week in meetings and that excludes impromptu meetings
• Conflict can lead to a negative environment and distraction from the agenda
• Not summarizing actions – next steps are unclear, no action plan
• These issues lead to meeting failures which increase costs and decrease productivity, focus, and engagement

Survey of 182 Senior Managers in a Range of Industries

Only 17% reported that their meetings are generally productive uses of group and individual time

Effects of Meeting Failures

• Time is zero-sum (time spent doing more of one thing means less of another)
• Deep work meaning the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task
• Having fewer meetings and running them poorly allows for more solo tasks and deep thinking, but weakens group productivity and collaboration
• Dysfunctional meeting behaviors (including wandering off-topic, complaining, and criticizing) decrease decreases market share, innovation, and employment stability
• Happiness: Job satisfaction correlates with the effectiveness of meetings.
• Bad meetings can undermine communication and collaboration leading to less satisfaction.

Five Steps for Systemic Change

• Collect data: Survey should include questions about emotions felt about meetings, hours spent in meetings, the balance between group and individual work-time, the impact o work quality, and identifying best practices
• Interpret data: By doing this together, you are generating widespread understanding and buy-in from your team as you try to make the systemic change
• Goal: Meeting free periods allows time to feel like they have freedom and flexibility to get tasks done and free up time in the schedule.
• Handoffs are good because they require less time and people and still an adequate exchange of information to keep everyone updated.
• Use pulse checks to identify how employees feel about the way they spend their time and how they are doing working on a team •

Tips for Meeting Management

• Establish clear agenda and stick to it
• Determine who should attend
• Set your schedule
• Determine action items and who is responsible
• Encourage feedback
• Leadership support is critical

How is this applicable to our practice?

• Pharmacists are constantly in meetings
  • The administrative role has a higher volume of meetings
• Distractions during meetings can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes
  • Improper “go-live” or medication safety issue
• Meeting failures can decrease team satisfaction thus decrease productivity in pharmacy
  • Promote high tension in an already stressful work environment
  • The team feels a disconnect between themselves and the leader
  • More push back on new initiatives

Summary

• Many factors go into making a successful meeting or a failed one

• Open communication and honesty foster stronger bonds
• Systemic change can lead to better meetings
• Better meeting means a happier team and better results

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