Meeting SMALL changes everything - here's how to do it

My view on the easiest way to reduce meeting load? Meet in smaller groups. MUCH smaller groups - 2s, 3s and 4s.

Four reasons for shifting to a Meet Small culture:

1. The fewer people there are, the less time it takes. Every time you add a person, the number of ‘agreements’ goes up exponentially.

2. There are no bystanders in a a very small meeting

3. Small groups take more ownership

4. People contribute more, and more honestly, in smaller groups.

But here's the problem 

Many companies I work with are full of very bright, very nice people. Meeting small feels countercultural. 

They don’t want to snub people by excluding them.

They don’t want to miss any important perspectives.

And even if they slim down their own meetings, they still end up going to lots of other bloated meetings.

How can we meet small without missing things and disengaging people?

First, you need to change the primary modality of collaboration. Yes, meetings are one important place where collaboration happens. But they are just about the most expensive way you can possibly think of to collaborate. If you can shift the locus of consultation and alignment out of meetings and into daily working communication, you will free up your team's time and also create more ownership and trust. 

If you're not already making full use of group typed chat, now's the time to start. It's the home of collaboration, working out loud and trust.

Here's my approach to shifting to a Meet Small culture:

Consult wide, meet small.

Even if (especially if) you meet very small, it’s important to represent a diverse range of voices and perspectives. So consult with a wider group who then agree that the smaller group will do the heavy lifting in the meeting together. 

The smaller group seeks structured input from a wider group or from expert individuals, and then actively represents the wider views in the meeting

They present back their progress and learnings regularly so the wider group can respond with their thoughts and also unblock progress if needed. 

The smaller group share back very regularly and transparently with the wider group to dispel any misconception that the small group is somehow closed or private.

The You’re-Not-Invited Invite

My husband asked his friend if she was also going to their ex-colleagues party. She replied "NFI!" Ouch.

(I had to think for a minute too)

The only thing worse than being invited to loads of meetings is... not being invited 🙄.

When it comes to work meetings, we don't necessarily actually want to go to each and every one, but we want to know what's going on and we want to give input.

So how can you achieve this without inviting everyone. Try the You're-Not-Invited Invite.

Here are some options to consider.

Can you send the invitation content to a wider range of people, clearly specifying who’s in the micro-meeting and who is informed? The CC invitation option is unfortunately not ideal for this as it clutters calendars with meetings you're not actually going to but Microsoft's meeting 'follow' button is probably closer to what's needed. 

If you don't have the 'follow' button, can you share the invitation as an FYI on Teams or whatever group typed chat platform you use?

And of course, by invitation, I mean a totally clear and energising invitation - you can use my template here to inspire your next meeting invite.

Work out loud, as standard

We need meetings to join the dots when related work is happening simultaneously but silently.

Work out loud. Use group typed chat channels to share updates daily, weekly, whatever makes sense. 

Share work in progress and explain your thinking, what’s working and what isn’t.

Share questions, learnings, puzzles. 

Share meeting summaries and recordings (try my 'summarise any meeting' AI prompt)

Invite comments. Comment on what other people share.

THIS is collaboration. Don't burn time doing it in exclusively in 'alignment' meetings.

Socialise the concept of meeting small

Sow the seed for a Meet Small mindset everywhere you can. Make it the logical default.

"Consulting widely and working transparently - yes, we are ALL about this. But using meetings to do this is not the best use of our time. Instead we consult wide, then meet small."

Share posts / ideas about meeting small on Teams or whatever intranet you use.

Add something about the concept of ‘meeting small’ in your team or organisation collaboration manifesto. Haven’t got one? Let's talk about this :-)

Then reference the manifesto and Consult Wide Meet Small in the meeting invite. 

Should all meetings be very small? Absolutely not. There are many great ways to meet with medium-sized and larger groups and this might be exactly the right thing to do.

But if most internal meetings involve 5-10 people, it will be very difficult to make a material dent in meeting load and collaborative stress.