Book Review of The Surprising Science of Meetings: How you can lead your team to peak performance

If you are not enjoying and looking forward to the meetings you are attending in the organizations you work or volunteer for, then Dr. Rogelberg's book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance deserves your attention. 

I recently read this book in a club setting with graduate students studying leadership in the department of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education within the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences at Utah State University.

My review for this book is in the form of an outline covering the key concepts with quotes and references to specific chapters. 

1. The purpose of meetings (ch. 1)
   1. ​Every day in the US there are roughly 55 million workplace meetings. This is up from about 11 million about 40 years ago (p. 4).
   2. Meetings are “the key mechanism to bring people together, gain input, promote discussion, promote synergy, provide voice, explain things, coordinate, foster ownership, and learn and grow as a unit” (p. 7).
   3. “A poorly conducted and unnecessary meeting is indeed a form of time theft, a theft that can be prevented.” (20)
2. The amount of time we spend in meetings (ch. 1-2)
   1. “Meetings help employees build attachments to others and recognize that they are not alone in silos but instead are part of something bigger than themselves” (p. 16)
   2. “Meetings can be stages for leaders to truly lead, share their visions, be authentic, and inspire and engage their team...most importantly, meetings are sites for promoting consensus, thus serving as a focal point for collective drive and energy” (p. 17)
   3. Creating a Feedback Survey (360-Degree tool pg. 153)
3. The lack of meeting leadership skills (ch. 3)
   1. We are not trained in how to facilitate effective meetings. “Poor meeting leadership skills will beget poor meeting leadership skills in others” (p. 26). If you do all the talking you will think the meeting went well.
   2. Leaders have inflated optimism in regards to their effectiveness in facilitating meetings (p. 28)
   3. The Good Meeting Facilitation Checklist (pp. 36-37)
4. Parkinson’s Law and making meetings shorter (ch. 4)
   1. Parkinson’s Law: work expands to whatever time is allotted. “If we have space, we fill it” (p.43)
   2. “Dropping 5 to 10 minutes off the meeting link allows for transition time and helps mitigate future meeting lateness” (p. 45)
   3. “ A ten- or fifteen-minute meeting is another tool for a leader to consider” (p. 46)
   4. Meeting organizers should consider shortening the length of meetings to reduce stress, pressure, and to make attendees more effective.
   5. “Ultimately, decreasing a meetings length not only returns time to the attendees but also creates a positive form of pressure, in turn sharpening attendees focus and interest.” (43) So let’s have a huddle. (pg.47) 
5. The science behind planning better meetings
   1. Agenda (ch. 5) 
      1. “A meeting is a shared experience, and it only seems appropriate to allow all parties to have some level of input” (p. 58)
      2. The order of items on an agenda is important and it makes a difference in the effectiveness of a meeting (p. 59)
      3. Planning a meeting is knowing not only what you want to cover, but also how you want to go about doing it (p. 64)
   2. Size (ch. 6)
      1. Two-pizza rule
         1. “The meeting should not contain more people than what two pizzas could feed” (p. 73)
      2. 8-18-1800 rule
         1. Solve a problem - 8 people
         2. Brainstorming - 18 people
         3. Inform the troops, rally folks - 1800 people
      3. “Any time an unneeded employee is not at a meeting, you are giving the kindest gift one can give--the gift of time” (p. 78)
   3. Arrangements (ch. 7)
      1. Seating - Seating in a meeting “can affect meeting effectiveness, critical-decision making, creativity, enjoyment, and energy” (p. 82). Changing seating arrangements is a way to introduce variety to meetings. 
      2. Walking: “Taken together, it appears that walking is not only good for the individuals mind and body but also results in greater potential for innovative thinking.” (86) 
      3. Standing - “sit-down meetings took 34 percent longer than standing meetings”
      4. Empty Chair: “This empty chair is a noticeable, physical cue that is meant to symbolically represent the need to recognize the customer in all that is said and discussed.” (84)
   4. Tactics for effective meetings (ch. 8)
      1. Positivity
         1. A positive mood promotes individual cognitive flexibility, resilience, well-being, and even creativity
         2. Meetings need humor, in fact, “meetings with more humor rated higher on overall team performance” (p. 92)
      2. Dos and Don’ts
         1. Actively greet attendees and help people feel welcome, appreciates, and needed.
         2. Make eye contact
         3. Establish a technology policy
         4. Offer food
         5. Consider bringing toys: Play-Doh, Slinkys, magnets, puzzles, and games to help create separation and concentration and to foster a positive mood state.
         6. Work into the agenda a “technology break”
         7. Ask someone to play the role of Devil’s advocate/contrarian
   5. Barriers to effective meetings (ch. 9)
      1. Groupthink - the phenomenon that a group’s desire for harmony leads to the pressure to conform and to a lack of critical decision-making.
      2. Social loafing - an individual’s reduction of effort when in the a collective.
      3. Brainwriting- “Involves silently sharing written ideas in meetings around a particular topic. Attendees participate in parallel and so there is no need to take turns.” (109) 
      4. Silent reading - Through silent reading, Bezos at Amazon sought to create an “idea meritocracy” and saw collective silent reading as a key mechanism to do so (p. 114)
6. Virtual meetings (ch. 10)
   1. Tips
      1. Be an active facilitator
      2. Keep it on task
      3. Encourage participation
      4. Name names during conversations (not just they, us them, stuff) 
      5. Consider banning the mute button and no video options 
         1. Helps participates stay in the meeting and focused instead of getting side tracked 
   2. How to have an effective meeting…
      1. Bring snacks
      2. Set technology limits and expectations
      3. Allow for fidget items or doodling 
7. Conclusion
   1. Reiterating the purpose and importance of meetings (ch. 11)