Let us share some interesting insights with you!

Some say that it all started with the rascally spies of OSS, the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They knew a thing or two about mischief-making, especially when it came to undermining America’s enemies in World War II. One of their more imaginative ideas was to train everyday citizens in “the art of simple sabotage”. They wrote the ‘sabotaging meetings’ guide to instruct and guide to delay and cancel the chances to get work done and make decisions.

This rebellious guidance from nearly 80 years ago resonates strongly today with all of us:

“Make ‘speeches’ — talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your ‘points’ by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.”
– OSS (CIA) field manual, 1944

In other words, meetings were thought by the CIA as an attack and method to make their “enemy” delay and cancel their chances to get work done or make decisions.

So how come teams spend over 30% of their time in meetings today and we still not changing that?

How can maintain a collaborative environment, share knowledge between stakeholders and departments and make decisions effectively?

Is that even possible?

The answer is yes!

We have spent the last 7 years studying how teams and stakeholders can collaborate, share knowledge, and make progress effectively without having to rely on meetings. We have even tested this in the most complex scenarios where a group of people had to form a team, never met before, worked from different countries and time zones, and had only one week to come up with a collaborative solution. This was tested in 2019 with an Erasmus+ for an ESG assembly to discuss global and local challenges. By the end of the week, each team was able to deliver solutions, keeping in mind everyone’s knowledge and without having any meetings.

While this doesn’t have to be this extreme, we wanted to test it in the most challenging scenarios. But let us share with you how this translates to a business or other scenarios.

So let’s start with the type of meeting and how some of them can be canceled immediately because they are negatively affecting progress.

To mention a few interesting ideas, in 2019, the director of the pharmaceutical organization that created the COVID vaccine classified meetings into three categories:

1. Informative meetings
2. Opinions, and
3. Decisions.

On the other hand, Shopify, at the beginning of 2023, decided to remove all their recurring meetings, that means over 12,000 meetings.

After a few months, they evaluated if any had to be re-added to their calendar and after a deep evaluation, they were able to eliminate 30% of those recurring meetings.

So let’s keep these types of meetings in mind:

Type of meetings.

• Informative meetings: These gatherings are meant to share information and updates on a topic. About 90% of them should be canceled, and alternative methods should be employed to keep the team or stakeholders informed. However, it’s important to retain informative meetings that serve as an introduction to significant objectives and help unite everyone. For instance, avoid holding meetings solely for sharing updates or tracking progress.
• Opinions: These meetings are for discussing initial opinions, gathering feedback, or outlining requirements. They should either be canceled or kept to a minimum.
• Decisions: These meetings involve making final decisions or troubleshooting problems. They should be maintained.

“Comfort and the fear of change are the greatest enemies of success.”
― Jeanette Coron

But what is the alternative to meetings?

How can you collaborate with the team or stakeholders, keep everyone informed, and make decisions without sitting in a meeting?

It doesn’t have to follow the structure of traditional meetings as you know them today. The fundamentals of successful meetings will still apply, ensuring that all ideas are heard, team members and stakeholders can share and leverage each other’s knowledge, and the meeting leader can guide the discussion to reach decisions.

This can be achieved with asynchronous meetings.

Asynchronous meetings mirror traditional live meetings, bringing people together to learn, discuss, or make decisions about a topic. However, they don’t require waiting for everyone to be available at the same time, nor do they involve rehashing the same conversation repeatedly to cover all the details.

Well-planned asynchronous meetings help teams and stakeholders better understand topics, digest information for better decision-making, and encourage everyone to contribute their knowledge. Additionally, the collective knowledge is easily accessible, and there’s less chance of misinterpreting perceptions and ideas because there’s a clear record of how decisions are made over time and who is involved in those decisions.

Now, let’s get practical.

So, how can you transition your informative meetings to asynchronous communication?

1) Informative meetings.

Meetings that have the sole objective to inform a team or stakeholders about a new proposal, changes in the project or organization, updates, etc. Overall, one person tends to share the information while everyone is listening (actively or passively), and often there is no participation required from the participants in the meeting.

These meetings can be easily canceled and moved into other formats. You can consider the following.

• Email: Send an email to team members and stakeholders to inform them. The PROS about this are that it is easy to implement and everyone is familiar with the format. The CONS are that it is not easy to track who has read it or has a general idea of who is informed. Additionally, it is difficult to share complex information with this method, like you can’t share your screen, etc. Another alternative is Slack or other messaging systems.
• Loom or any other video recording platform: Send a video recording sharing the information. This lets you share information in a similar way you will share that information during a meeting. You can share your screen and speak during the video. The PROs are that it is easy for those who have to be informed to follow a format that is similar to a meeting; the difference is that they can choose when to watch it. The CONS are that team members have to become comfortable creating quick videos to share information, and it’s hard to track who has watched it or even hold people accountable or have control over WHEN stakeholders watch it.
• Nova + video recording platform (Loom): Send an informative session and invite team members and stakeholders to join during a specific period; for example, you can schedule it that stakeholders watch it before Wednesday next week, and additionally, you can track who has watched it and even ask questions and add a space for comments. The PROS are that this method is ideal when you want to ensure people stay informed before a specific date or you want to know who is informed. Additionally, it is good if you want to make it part of a process or want to make it more collaborative and want to ask questions or even encourage people to ask questions. The CONS are that team members have to become familiar with the format and two platforms are needed.

Learn more about Nova here.

2) Opinion meeting.

These meetings can be categorized as those where you are gathering ideas, learning about different opinions and needs, discussing, and helping move gather information or input to get something done.

This can include meetings like the ones mentioned below:

• Brainstorming meetings: Meetings in which team members or stakeholders are sharing ideas. Often the ideas tend to be raw and need further evaluation and consideration.

• Discussion meetings: Meetings where you are discussing the “problem” to better define a solution, where you are discussing the plan, discussing or exploring multiple alternatives, etc.
• Feedback meetings: Meetings in which you have a proposal, idea, project, plan, design, etc., and you want to share it to gather input and feedback, to evaluate if there is anything missing, if you are moving in the right direction and even to reduce risks. Often also have the intention to get stakeholders involved to get their buy-in.
• Evaluation meetings. Discuss risks, challenges, etc.

Opinion meetings can often be canceled and moved to other formats. Because these meetings require the collaboration of other team members, maybe some other departments and stakeholders have to be moved into asynchronous meetings.

3) Decision meetings.

In general, these are meetings aimed at reaching a decision within the session. Some of them happen in last-minute discussions. Calls added to your calendar to finalize details and make a decision on ongoing work, while others involve a more structured agenda covering risks, considerations, and potential alternatives before arriving at a decision. These meetings automatically create a sense of progress, as team members and stakeholders typically pause their work until a decision is reached.

What’s the secret sauce of a good meeting?

To finalize this post, we’ve emphasized the importance of preparing meetings, whether they’re conducted live or asynchronously. Well-prepared meetings are more likely to facilitate team progress and decision-making. But how can you effectively lead and prepare meetings? What’s the secret sauce of a good meeting?

Good meetings are those that enable a group of people to tap into each other’s knowledge and make decisions together, ensuring all participants have a common and clear vision of what will happen next and the roles they play. To tap into each other’s knowledge, participants need to understand what type of knowledge they should share and what the meeting leader prioritizes during the conversation. This is why the person leading the meeting needs to always:

1. Define the objective of the meeting. Forget about meeting agendas; those are nice-to-have, not must-have. By defining the meeting’s objective and the expectations from all participants, you can better help participants understand why they are there and what you want to achieve.

2. Read the room! Seriously! When you introduce a topic, a problem, or an idea, ask participants questions like “How do you feel about it?” or “How confident are we that this will work?”

3. Additionally, and most importantly, the person leading the meeting must prepare at least three questions that will help participants share their knowledge and make a decision. These questions should be thought-provoking and aim to achieve the meeting’s goal.

Here is a video on how to run a good meeting.

Learn more about Nova here.

Give it a shot, run an asynchronous meeting, and share your experience with us!

We want to hear about your experiences. Share your thoughts, questions, and insights in the comments below.

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