Meetings can be a simple and powerful way to shift culture, the persistent problem though is meetings tend to be the place where bad habits are reinforced. Some of the most common bad habits show up in how power is wielded, whose voices are heard and how decisions get made.

While organizations tend to have very laudable missions and values, in practice, we find base human psychology and physiology reigning supreme. What I mean is that the person in the meeting with the most power tends to talk the most, have their opinions/ideas forwarded and their decisions defended with the most fervor. People tend to agree with the most powerful person in the room, which invites group think and confirmation bias. Why convene a group to think, consider or collaborate, when at the end of the meeting the highest paid person's opinion (a.k.a. The HiPPO Decision Making Model 😊) is the only one that had a chance?

In addition to the problems of the HiPPOs, meetings also help reinforce cliques. Ever notice how quickly we self-assign seats in these settings? This means we typically sit next to the same people, which is limiting our ability to connect with others. Sure, office politics are real and there are some people whom you just don’t care for at work, but by ignoring and avoiding them, we only further cement the narratives we have about the “other,” and inhibit opportunities to see different perspectives and build bridges. New connections (physical and emotional) create increased understanding and trust, which are the foundation of healthy relationships, which is the fertile soil of powerful collaboration and contribution. When we allow ourselves and our teams to remain in cliques, we reduce the opportunities for innovation and increase the possibilities of group think.

The final bad meeting habit I see organizations tolerating is shallow listening. This looks different at times, but the results remain the same - low engagement, little empathy, shallow understanding and protracted productivity. All of this undercuts the ability for trust to emerge and creativity to flourish. Shallow listening looks like side-bar conversations, noodling (a.k.a. playing with your personal technology device, such as watch, phone and computer), and rushed agenda items. When we are in shallow listening mode, we are not listening or thinking deeply. We are not curious. We are not clear. Our bodies are present but our minds are somewhere else.

If we change the structure of meetings, we can create spaces where most of these habits do not have the chance to rear their ugly heads. By closing down the space for these habits to fester in the 15% of time an organization meets, we can begin changing habits and patterns of the 85% of the time spent doing the work..