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Welcome to the new manager 
podcast. 

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I'm your host, Kim nickel. 
Hello and welcome. 

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I'm glad that you're here. 
And I hope you're doing well. 

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Today. 
I want to talk about meetings. 

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It's often the most dreaded part
of the work week rarely do 

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people say, you know, what, I 
need more of. 

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I need more meetings, most of 
the time. 

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It's a feeling like there are 
too many meetings. 

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They are not that useful. 
They take up all this time and 

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there's no time to actually do 
work. 

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So, I've been thinking about 
that and also today, I 

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facilitated a half-day, team 
off-site was a team of 16 

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people. 
Several of them were very new 

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and they were anticipating 
growing and bringing on new 

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hires and one of the focuses for
the meeting was to talk about 

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team Norms, including What are 
our expectations around? 

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How we do our team meeting? 
How do we make them more 

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effective and together? 
We spent three hours a good 

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chunk of that time. 
Was just focused on like, how do

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we share information? 
How often do we want to have 

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meetings? 
What are the expectations around

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different time zones? 
Should we use Mewtwo? 

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Should we use the hand raised 
feature? 

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Like really getting quite 
detailed and One of the things I

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really appreciated about the 
experience and that I wanted to 

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bring to you was that it can be 
very tedious to look at how you 

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do meetings and have a 
conversation about that rather 

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than simply just going with the 
momentum of how you've done 

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meetings in the past. 
But the value of that is 

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tremendous. 
So yes acknowledging, it takes 

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some effort. 
But it can be so worth it, 

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especially as the team is 
growing because the more people 

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you add to anything, the more 
you amplify, the things that 

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work and the things that don't, 
and sometimes teams can work 

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very well together, only at a 
certain size and then as the 

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size of the team grows, or you 
start to lose people and bring 

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new people in. 
Then some of the relationships 

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that created the processes and 
systems start to break and 

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Things become difficult. 
So here's what I was thinking 

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about that. 
I wanted to share with you. 

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Number one. 
Most people don't like meetings 

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for the same reason. 
They don't like brussels 

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sprouts. 
They've just never had a really 

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good one. 
And if you've only had a 

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Brussels sprout, that was I 
overcooked and not that 

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flavorful. 
You would probably not want to 

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have more and sing with 
meetings. 

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If you have never had a meeting 
that was thoughtfully designed. 

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That was very clear about what 
you were to accomplish. 

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That had the right people in it.
That had the right amount of 

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trust and structure and focus, 
and a feeling of satisfaction. 

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Then, of course, you wouldn't 
want to have another one. 

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So it takes some work to be 
intentional and I thought and 

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how you plan meetings, some of 
the things you want to ask 

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yourself are. 
What are your team norms and 

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look at what are the Norms you 
have right now? 

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What is your current status with
your team meetings and make a 

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list? 
If you had to identify the 

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characteristics of your meeting,
what stands out to you? 

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What are the norms and do this 
without any Judgment of whether 

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Whether it's good or bad, just 
assess. 

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Just take a snapshot. 
What do we do right now? 

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Then you also want to ask? 
What are your personal 

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preferences? 
You might be in meetings that 

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are very much against your 
personal preferences. 

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You might think I need to say 
yes to be a team player. 

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So for example, you might be in 
a time zone where every time 

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meetings get scheduled it 
conflicts with your lunchtime. 

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And you're thinking, I just have
to say yes to these meetings 

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because they are scheduled and I
have to be a team player. 

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And so I will be accommodating 
and all of that is great. 

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However, be intentional. 
You may be able to change that 

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meeting simply by saying. 
Oh, I'm not available at this 

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time. 
You might simply block time on 

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your calendar, that shows you as
not available, so you can 

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protect that time for lunch. 
And remember, we all do. 

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Bunch of different times. 
Some of us are early lunch 

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people, some of us quite late. 
So we can't assume that the 

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person booking, the meeting has 
the same preference for the same

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understanding. 
There are things you can do to 

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support your ease and well-being
and your personal preferences. 

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Also consider, what are the 
constraints due to time zones, 

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or where people are located? 
Now that a lot of us are working

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in a hybrid environment. 
What are or expectations or 

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group preferences around when 
you're in the office or when 

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your remote and as you start to 
look at all these things, your 

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current team, Norms, your 
personal preferences, the 

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constraints you're working with,
then you ask, how can you design

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for that to make best use of 
everyone's attention and time 

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and energy? 
And yes, it takes emotional 

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labor and a desire to To do this
work, but the payoff is that you

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start to create Clarity. 
You make it easier for people to

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work well together. 
And as you grow, you establish 

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an environment and clear 
language, that makes it easy for

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new folks to acclimate and to 
ramp up quickly. 

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It's a way of creating more he's
in the system and in the process

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so that it's easier to do good 
work together. 

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Now, most of us. 
Of us, simply create our 

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meetings by default by habit or 
by neglect. 

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So, of course, there is high 
meeting a version when we're not

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being intentional about the 
humans who are part of this 

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experience. 
And this can also look like lots

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of confusion low-level 
resentment or a general sense of

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fatigue. 
So the good news in all this 

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number. 
Your past does not create your 

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future. 
So just because you've been 

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doing meetings in a way that is 
just, you know, might be 

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tradition. 
This is just how we've always 

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done our meetings. 
They've always been an hour long

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just because that's part of your
past does not mean you need to 

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make that your future because 
you get to create your future 

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now in the present moment, and 
this is an iterative process. 

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So don't think you have to come 
up. 

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Up with a perfect meeting plan 
or the perfect team norms and 

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then launch them and have 
everything go perfectly. 

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This is an iterative living 
process because you are a living

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a live person and you are 
working with other humans and 

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there is a dynamic relationship 
here. 

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The overarching question is, how
do we work together? 

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And then specifically how do we 
design our Meetings. 

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So, that we make the best use of
everyone's time. 

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So that maybe we even look 
forward to them because they are

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effective. 
They are connective and it makes

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our life better to have these 
specific meetings. 

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Now, just as one small note. 
I have found it in my own 

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practice to be very helpful to 
never schedule things for a half

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or a full hour. 90 minutes 45 
minutes or 50 minutes is lovely 

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because that means that you 
build in a little buffer time. 

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So that whatever is coming next 
you're not going to bump up 

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against that and sort of not 
give yourself transition time. 

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And for the person that you're 
meeting with it gives them a 

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little bit of buffer time as 
well. 

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So you can build that into your 
practice. 

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Simply by adjusting the duration
of your meetings, a lot of 

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meeting tools and calendar, 
tools will give you default 

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settings for the 15, 30 45 or 
our you do not need to follow 

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that. 
You can make it 20 minutes, 25 

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minutes. 
And what happens when you have a

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more compressed time, is it 
requires you to be more clear 

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and focused about how you're 
going to use that time? 

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And that benefits everybody when
we do that, work up front. 

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So that when we arrive, we're 
ready to go. 

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You can also think in terms of 
what is this meeting for? 

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Is it to build connection? 
Is it to share information? 

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Is it to have a live Q&A so that
we can be very efficient 

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together and answering 
everyone's questions around this

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particular topic. 
Are we meeting in order to make 

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a decision? 
What is the purpose? 

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What will success look like. 
And when you have that sense of 

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clarity, that also means that if
you reach that success marker, 

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before the allocated time, you 
can then release people, it is 

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okay, to end meanings early. 
It doesn't mean that you, you 

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know, misallocated, right? 
It just means, like, okay. 

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I set 25 minutes for this 
meeting turns out. 

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We were able to Accomplish 
everything in fifteen. 

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So we're done. 
Like continue on and use your 

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time giving people time back is 
a gift. 

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It's not something to feel bad 
about. 

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So that is what I wanted to 
offer you today is simply this 

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thought of how can I make 
meetings better? 

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It's unlikely that you will ever
be completely free of them. 

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So as long as you're going to 
have them, why not make them 

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good. 
How do you want to work 

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together? 
What will make your meetings 

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better? 
You have more power to influence

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this and create a good outcome. 
Then you might realize and if 

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you're thinking well, but I am 
not the one setting the meeting.

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I'd have no choice but to accept
the meeting invites and to go 

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along with what's given to me. 
I would question that. 

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You never know what else is 
possible. 

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And this also is where that 
level of awareness and 

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communication, skill comes in 
and remember, being a leader 

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means going first, and sometimes
that means like raising your 

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hand or speaking to someone 
separately and saying, hey, I 

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know we've been doing our 
meetings in this way. 

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I have an idea, I wanted to 
share with you. 

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I wanted to see what you think 
and you can offer a Cheston, 

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invite them to see what's 
possible. 

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One of my clients was telling 
me, I work with this person and 

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they suffer from a lack of 
imagination. 

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They just can't see what's 
possible. 

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And so, they're always, you 
know, doing things the way 

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they've done it in the past and 
they're always surprised and 

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resistant. 
When, you know, they suggest 

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doing something different. 
We're all there from time to 

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time. 
It's fine. 

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But remember that just because 
the people around you have 

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fancier titles, or have been 
there longer. 

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It doesn't mean that they know 
the most or the best about how 

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to create an effective meeting. 
There, might be an opportunity 

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to improve things and you can do
it through small choices and 

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really gentle adjustments. 
And when you start to find what 

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works, oh my gosh, everybody 
loves that. 

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Everybody loves it when meetings
get better. 

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So that is what I wanted to 
offer you today. 

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I hope that you have a really 
good week coming up. 

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I hope your meetings are 
effective. 

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Joyful and satisfying and if 
they're not remember, you can do

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something about it. 
Alright, that's it for me today.

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Have a great one and I'll talk 
to you later. 

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If you know it's time to level 
up, but you feel your 

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Perfectionism Self Doubt and 
uncertainty getting in the way. 

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Then come work with me. 
We'll have six months of 

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one-on-one coaching and it all 
starts by going to my website, 

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chemicalguys.com coaching and 
joining my waitlist. 

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Talk to you soon.