Why Marathon Meetings Don't Work And How To Change Them

"If we've got them in town we'll work 'til the sun goes down."

That's not a verse from Old Man River. It's a real quote from the manager of a global organization. He figures that if he's paying for travel, hotel, and meals to bring people from four continents together then, darn it, it ought to be "cost effective."

Cost effective in this case means meeting from Monday through Thursday or Friday from 7 am until 7 pm with lunch delivered. Then, dinner at an (albeit) nice restaurant where the business discussion can continue.

The purpose of these meetings: To make decisions impacting the success of the business.

Draining the  Function at Your Neuro Junction

Allow me to turn this over to the research mavens at Scientific American for a moment. Any emphases are mine:

"The human mind is a remarkable device. Nevertheless, it is not without limits. Recently, a growing body of research has focused on a particular mental limitation, which has to do with our ability to use a mental trait known as executive function. When you focus on a specific task for an extended period of time or choose to eat a salad instead of a piece of cake, you are flexing your executive function muscles. Both thought processes require conscious effort-you have to resist the temptation to let your mind wander or to indulge in the sweet dessert. It turns out, however, that use of executive function—a talent we all rely on throughout the day—draws upon a single resource of limited capacity in the brain. When this resource is exhausted by one activity, our mental capacity may be severely hindered in another, seemingly unrelated activity. (See here and here.)"

We're Not Leaving Until Everything Is Resolved!

This battle cry is probably well-known to business types worldwide. You've heard it, I've heard it and yes, I even remember saying it more than once.

There's nothing wrong with resolution; it's the pathway to reducing tension and moving on in a healthier way, regardless of the type of issue. Here's the catch:

The research (and common sense) shows that decisions are adversely affected by fatigue. And, the act of trying to stay focused is an energy-burner with self-defeating results. Let's keep this simple:

Tired people make bad decisions.

Forcing tired people to keep making decisions in order to feel good about your Return on Travel Investment (ROTI) is the business equivalent of taking a gun and intentionally shooting yourself in the foot. You may enjoy the momentary sense of power but the results wont' feel very good.

5 Things That Can Make a Difference

1. Give people all of the information to be discussed prior to the meeting, with enough time to digest it.

2. Tell them what decisions will be made using that data.

3. Keep your meeting to the length of a normal work day with frequent breaks and time to go outside for a little fresh air.

4. If it's a week-long meeting, schedule an afternoon of leisure time. Most of the meaningful decisions I've seen made in companies actually take place while people are engaged in casual conversation and building relationships.

5. Leave enough time at the end of the meeting to evaluate the meeting. Not 5 minutes; more like 20 minutes of "How did we do and what do we want to tweak for our next meeting?"

Finally--and this is a biggie: If you have finished what you set out to do and it's Thursday morning of a meeting that was supposed to end on Friday, declare victory and stop. How many times have you seen meetings go to their appointed end time because someone allowed the end time to govern the activity?

Flights don't leave for another 24 hours?

If you have a room full of mature people, ask, "What's the best way to use our remaining time?"

It will be the week that people people rave about for years to come.

Comments

[RobynM]

I love this post, Steve. And just to chime in as the INTP you know I am, even 8 hours locked up in a room with other people focusing on a single subject could reduce an introvert to a babbling idiot. Ten or 12 hours without time to rest and be alone ought to be cause for a lawsuit or justifiable homicide. And we'd probably get our best ideas alone in the jail cell.

Your suggestion of giving people time to get to know one another in a more relaxed setting will definitely pay dividends in the quality of the potential solutions to the business problem. And I REALLY like your suggestion to take time to do a wrap up of the day's work and informally set the next day's agenda. It makes things so much easier when everyone arrives mentally prepared for the day's work.

[Steve Roesler]

Robyn,

I'd guess that anyone from the corporate world could rattle off a list of painful meeting experiences. Yet, meetings don't have to be that way.

There may be another underlying reason for protracted meetings: the belief that, "If I change what I put on the agenda I'll look like a weak leader." That kind of posture gets people into unnecessary difficulty in all kinds of situations.

Perhaps the more introverted folks could have time to talk to themselves. Alone.

[Maria]

Finally science supports what we all already know! While I find the occasional offsite meeting energizing and productive, expecting people to do really hard mental work for 8-12 hours is too much.

I completely agree that many of the best decisions and ideas come during the informal parts of meetings. This is just more proof that adults need recess, too!

[Dan McCarthy]

So there’s actual science behind that after lunch and end of day meeting fog? Thanks, I’ll use this next time I need to convince some manager not to try to cram so much content into an off-site meeting.

And if you find yourself stuck in one of these marathons, here’s 12 things to do in an all day meeting, from Stanley Bing:
http://greatleadershipbydan.blogspot.com/2008/05/12-things-to-do-at-all-day-meeting.html

[Steve Roesler]

Maria and Dan,

Isn't it fascinating (and bewildering) that a segment of the business population could actually be waiting for these findings to validate what every gluteus maximus has signaled since the beginning of recorded history?

But heck--if that's what it takes to make a difference, let's hand out the research as quickly as possible.

Maria: "Adults Need Recess, Too" should have been the title of the post!
Good one.

Dan: Who can resist a Stanley Bing reference? Headed that way, thanks for the link. . .