Have your meetings become routine? The underlying dynamics of meetings often go unnoticed and unchecked. But savvy leaders run meetings like elite sports coaches choreograph games using a series of plays. These leaders scan for potentially destructive meeting red flags and seize subtle opportunities to enhance team success and individual growth.
In recent years, meeting dynamics have shifted because of the increased frequency of virtual meetings and a corresponding normalization of side chats during in-person, hybrid and virtual meetings. The widespread presence of distracting electronic tools (such as phones, iPads and laptops) in face-to-face meetings also makes it difficult for meeting leaders to gauge the attention levels of participants — many of whom erroneously believe they have multitasking superpowers. Finally, the presence of AI tools that monitor real-time interactions as virtual meeting "attendees" and notetakers also alters meeting dynamics.
These dynamics only intensify the challenges of running a productive meeting. Collectively, we’ve observed, evaluated and led thousands of team discussions over several decades. Based on our observations, experience and related research, we've identified three key roles that the smartest meeting leaders pay attention to and three red-flag meeting dynamics they notice and address.
Please select this link to read the complete article from MIT Sloan Management Review.