Analytics are the antidote to toxic meeting culture-DesignSoftwareUsers

Analytics are the antidote to toxic meeting culture

Antony William July 17,2022

The low and variable quality of meetings is a consistent pain point for organizations large and small. While ‘Zoom fatigue’ is certainly a recent driver of meeting dissatisfaction, for years, general meeting culture has discouraged diverse participation and quality engagement.

A study published in the American Political Science Review in 2012 found that women speak 25% less than men in meetings in which they are both present. Perhaps even more alarming, research published in HBR in 2014 showed that women are twice as likely to be interrupted in group dialogue — particularly in industries and organizations that are male-dominated. But with decades of research highlighting the benefits of diverse and inclusive organizations, it’s time that we do something to bring that diversity and inclusivity to meetings.

Organizations that try to combat this consistently run into the same problem: they don’t have tools to measure meeting engagement. Surveys can provide snapshots, but not ongoing, detailed transparency.

Luckily, with the rise of video conferences, better tools are starting to emerge, and they can start to give us an understanding of not just how diverse and inclusive our meetings are, but how productive and efficient they are as well.

How meeting analytics can measure and boost meeting engagement

Data has become the key to benchmarking success in just about every business facet, with some notable exceptions. Deloitte’s 2018 Global Human Capital Trends report , says that “84% of respondents viewed people analytics as important or very important,” but only “8% of organizations report that they have usable data,” and this is especially true for meetings.

However, with the boom in video conferencing during COVID-19, organizations do have the technology at their fingertips to explore real meeting insights for the first time ever.

For instance, Microsoft recently used workplace analytics to see how their work patterns were changing during COVID-19. Though Microsoft focused on meeting time, meeting analytics have the potential to go much further and can give organizations usable data on just about every aspect of meeting culture.

Here are three metrics that your organization could benefit from tracking to make your meetings more efficient, inclusive and enjoyable for all participants:

1. Know whether your meetings are starting and ending on time

One meeting expert estimates that businesses spend a combined $1.4 trillion on meetings every year, but they are almost always an invisible line item that nobody accounts for. ROI is important in every other business setting except meetings.

Microsoft’s data has shown the power of tracking meeting length, but knowing whether your meetings are starting and ending on time is another key metric for evaluating overall meeting health.

The power of meeting analytics would be the granularity of insights. You could not only track meeting start and end time from an organizational standpoint, but on an individual level as well. Is a particular manager consistently facilitating meetings that start late or run over? Is a disengaged employee chronically late to meetings?

Chances are they aren’t even fully aware of this, but with meeting analytics teams could quickly identify these as problems and then begin to find solutions.

2. Track overall and individual meeting engagement

Employee engagement is vitally important to the health of an organization. In Gallup’s most recent Q12 Meta-Analysis of employee engagement, they found that organizations that had the most highly engaged employees outperformed the lowest engaged organizations by 10% in customer loyalty, 21% in profitability, and 20% in productivity.

So, how can a meeting manager use meeting analytics with the tools they already have at their disposal? Many platforms detect who is speaking, but by thinking of this as a data resource, we have the opportunity to show meeting facilitators which attendees have been talking too much or haven’t been talking enough.

Speaking metrics are just the tip of the iceberg, however, as true meeting engagement can be measured in a variety of ways. Is an employee consistently taking notes? Has someone developed or updated an agenda to keep the meeting on topic? What about screenshare time or non-verbal feedback?

Organizations should explore how digital platforms could record this type of data so critical engagement, which is often felt but not measured, isn’t ignored when evaluating meeting health.

3. Capture demographic data to explore meeting diversity and inclusive engagement

Once you have engagement statistics, your organization can consider breaking this data down by gender, race, age, role, or salary, to get a macro-level understanding of its overall meeting culture.

When a meeting begins, employees would voluntarily self identify in the meeting platform. You could begin by tracking the overall diversity of meeting participants, but this could be taken even further into engagement statistics such as speaking time and the use of collaborative features to clearly see how inclusive your meeting engagement is.

Are women constantly being interrupted? Is engagement weighted equally among participants? These are critical questions that most organizations can merely guess about right now.

How to get started tracking meeting metrics

Getting started with meeting analytics might be easier than you think. You might be surprised at what analytics your organization already has access to in-house.

The first step is to do a review. Take note of what meeting metrics would be useful but are missing from your current capabilities. As Microsoft has demonstrated, it’s fairly easy to begin tracking meeting length. From there, look for video conferencing platforms that are beginning to embrace more in depth meeting analytics.

Of course, the antidote to toxic meeting culture isn’t just having meeting analytics, but using them in a transformational way.

Every team has different needs and every meeting looks different, but defining and calibrating unique meeting engagement targets and KPIs is a good place to start. Then include these KPIs in regular employees reviews.

Over time, this will create a positive feedback loop where employees learn to prioritize fast and efficient meetings with equitable participation, building good meeting culture into your organization’s DNA.

Here’s how you can ‘reset’ your sleep cycle during lockdown

You might have noticed your normal sleep pattern has changed. Some of us may be sleeping more, and some of us may be sleeping less. Life has changed dramatically for many of us, with our usual daily routine – including commutes, meal times, and the amount of time we spend outside – being altered because of self-isolation.

All of these changes impact our natural circadian rhythm , which is an essential internal “clock” that plays a key role in regulating our sleep pattern. It controls body temperature and hormones in order to make us feel alert during the day and tired at night.

Exposure to natural light and regular mealtimes are two of the most powerful forces in aligning our circadian rhythms. But for many of us, quarantine has changed the amount of time we spend outside, and we might be eating at different times than normal.

While some of us are reconnecting with our natural circadian rhythm, others might have trouble falling asleep, or maybe waking up multiple times during the night. This is also a normal experience, as uncertainty can increase stress levels and stress hormones (such as cortisol), which help regulate our sleep-wake cycle. Cortisol normally drops in the evening, reaching its lowest level at midnight. But if levels are too high before bedtime, it could disrupt sleep .

Some of us might also be sleeping more, catching up on lost hours. Many of us have so-called “sleep debt,” which is the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep, and may lead to mental and physical fatigue . As we juggle our daily tasks, we often run out of hours in the day to get things done – so many of us choose to sleep less to do more.

Sleep debt (also known as sleep deprivation) is associated with declines in performance , memory , and our immunity .

If you are sleeping longer than normal, you may be repaying some of that sleep debt acquired in life. Don’t panic here – let your body catch up and erase some of that debt you have subconsciously been carrying around. Sleep loss studies that have allowed recovery sleeps of ten hours have demonstrated restoration of performance when the participants are awake, suggesting this is a fixable problem.

The solutions

1. Establish a new routine. You may have been furloughed or be working from home for the first time. Routine is very important for the body right now. This will be the starting block for engaging with your natural circadian rhythm – not the one your job normally sets. Start by focusing on your sleep-wake cycle, go to bed when you feel tired and try to wake up without an alarm. You may sleep a little more than normal at the beginning, but within a week or two, you will return to your natural duration. Though everyone is different, you should aim for 7-9 hours a night. Not only is routine good for our sleep cycle, but it’s also beneficial to our mental health .

2. Don’t use your bedroom as your office (if possible) When it’s time for bed, remove electronic devices and make the room cool, dark and quiet. It’s important to associate your bedroom as the place you go to sleep, not the place you work or watch TV. This will help you to relax and prepare for sleep. Electronic devices also emit artificial light that can influence our sleep cycle . Artificial light can trick your circadian clock into thinking daylight has been extended and alter our quality of sleep . If you need electronic devices nearby, place them in night mode.

3. Avoid napping As you try to establish your new routine, it’s important to engage with your natural circadian rhythm – and napping could potentially disrupt this at the beginning. However, if your previous night’s sleep was poor you may feel more tired after lunch. Short naps – less than 20 minutes – can help to restore cognitive function and may make you feel less sleepy .

4. Only drink caffeine before noon We all respond a little differently to caffeine. Because caffeine is a known stimulant, it could influence our sleep by keeping us awake later. So when trying to fix your sleep pattern, it may be best to limit caffeine intake to earlier in your day.

5. Exercise Both aerobic and resistance exercise has been shown to have positive effects on sleep . However, timing is important. It’s best to avoid vigorous exercise one hour before bedtime as this may reduce our sleep duration, quality and make it more difficult to fall asleep in the first place.

6. Get outside Exposure to both natural light and dark during this time will help us keep our circadian rhythms in balance, and make us tired.

7. Change your bedtime routine At least an hour before bed stop work, reduce screen time, meditate, or read. These techniques allow us to relax and help our circadian rhythm take control by releasing hormones that will promote sleep and reduce alertness.

Though it’s still uncertain what life will look like after quarantine has ended, one thing for certain is that if we look after our sleep pattern during this time, we may leave quarantine feeling less fatigued – and maybe a little more productive.

This article is republished from The Conversation by Lesley Ingram-Sills , Lecturer, Edinburgh Napier University under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Treat your ex-employees better!

Boris is the wise ol’ CEO of TNW who writes a weekly column on everything about being an entrepreneur in tech — from managing stress to embracing awkwardness. You can get his musings straight to your inbox by signing up for his newsletter!

We have a policy at TNW that if you have ever worked for us you get lifetime access to our events. Every year we reach out to everybody who ever worked for us and offer them access to our conference.

It’s always a nice moment to get back in touch with people, find out what they’re up to, and to hear how happy they are when they realize they get a free ticket.

We started this policy early on, and with good reason. We believe that your ex-employees CAN BE some of your best ambassadors, both for marketing your company to partners and clients, but also for hiring new talent. And that’s why we go through some extra trouble to be nice to people who leave our company.

Now I’m not going to lie, this does take some extra effort, and it can feel strange to invest in employees who have already left. But, I think it’s worth it.

A common theory in HR is that there are three stages in an employee’s lifetime at a company:

First phase: everything is new and awesome

Second phase: everything is normal and unremarkable

Third phase: everything sucks

Obviously you want to keep your employees stuck in the first phase as long as possible, but you won’t be able to prevent some people from transitioning into the second phase at some point, and sometimes people move into the second or third phase temporarily, and then back into the first phase. We all have our bad weeks.

If you see an employee stuck in phase three for too long, it’s time for them to move on — and usually this isn’t even something you’ll have to suggest.

The problem though is that usually people who leave, also distance themselves from the company, and when they do they start seeing things in a different perspective and lose some of their love for your company. That’s why a lot of employees aren’t particularly positive about the company they have worked at and left.

If, however, you invest a little time and effort you can amplify the good parts of your working relationship and turn phase three employees who left your company into phase one ex-employees, and that’s a powerful thing to have.

Here are a few things I’ve found you can do to build a good relationship with ex-employees:

Don’t cut them off

Invite ex-employees to your Friday drinks, parties, and events. Involve them in your success and make them feel part of a family, even if they branched out. See them as teenagers that have left the household, but will always be a part of your history.

If they feel like they worked on the foundations of your success, they might feel partially responsible. And then your success becomes their success.

Help them get ahead

Write a recommendation for them. Offer to help them find a new job, or make introductions at other places. Be honest in what they are good at and what they could improve so they can get better at their jobs and make more money.

Once they realize you‘re invested in their success they’ll see the benefit of maintaining a good relationship.

Thank them for their contribution

This is a basic thing but when people leave it is easy to feel betrayed, disappointed, and focus on the work that won’t be done in the future. I try my best to focus on the contribution people already made to the company, and thank them for that.

If you’re moving and someone is coming to help out for two hours, you can get angry they aren’t sticking around for the whole day, OR you can thank them for the two hours they gave you. I think that’s a more positive way to deal with people leaving and it shows you care about their personal success as well.

Remember why you hired them in the first place

When couples fight there’s an easy trick to make them feel better about each other. Ask them: how did you meet and fall in love? By asking that question they’re both reminded to look back at how it all started and to see the good in each other.

Apply this to employees too: you hired them because they were good and smart and you respected that skill. Don’t focus on the reason for them to leave and get all hung up about that. Focus instead on the reason why you hired them.

When people leave there’s always that emotional moment where you feel disappointed, and maybe even worse. But if you manage to overcome that and focus on the person in front of you, and imagine how you’ll both benefit in the long run, it’s possible to have a great relationship into the future. And who knows, maybe one day you’ll work together again.

Can’t get enough of Boris? Check out his older stories here , and sign up for TNW’s newsletters here .

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