Create an environment that enables workers to not attend meetings without agendas. If there was no thought put into the “why” behind the meeting, chances are it will be a waste of everyone’s time.
Parents’ most finite resource is time. Give them the “get out of jail free” card.
4. Set up the 24-hour rule. Parents plan their day with the same level of detail as the Super Bowl Halftime Show. If you schedule a last-minute meeting, there is a chance they may be using that time to transition their kid to another activity and you are setting them up for failure, not to mention additional and unnecessary guilt.
The same goes for a last-minute cancellation. I spend the 30 minutes before a meeting putting my kids in front of the TV and making a snack to buy me that hour of focus. If you cancel, it throws everything off.
5. Avoid ‘transition’ times. Camps and summer activities start later and end earlier. So about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. is typically the sweet spot for a working parent to attend an important meeting where they need to be on camera, present and presenting.
6. Take advantage of helpful resources.
Level 1: Take notes and send them after the meeting.
Level 2: Record the meeting.
Level 3: Use AI to record the meeting and transcribe and auto-tag when someone is mentioned. Start training your teams to use phrasing like “let’s make sure Jeff follows up with Tim on the sales training plan” so AI can work for you. A few resources to check out are Fathom and Fireflies.
7. Support effective multi-tasking. Make internal meetings video optional. We can still speak eloquently about KPIs and project updates while spreading peanut butter and jelly.
8. Start the week as a support. No Meeting Mondays. I like it because it alliterates and makes sense. Let people start the week getting their most impactful work completed. Start on offense before they move to defense.
If meetings are the symptom, the next two points are the root cause. Micromanagers and meeting-heavy culture stem from a lack of operational excellence.
