The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance

by Steven G. Rogelberg

⧫ One of the ten Leadership books to watch in 2019 —The Washington Post ⧫ One of the top business books everybody will be reading in 2019 — Business Insider ⧫ As seen on “CBS This Morning”⧫ “In workplaces around the world, meetings are where productivity and creativity go to die. Steven Rogelberg is the world’s leading expert on how to fix them, and here he shares the best evidence on how we can stop wasting time and falling victim to groupthink.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take A recent estimate suggests that employees endure a staggering 55 million meetings a day in the United States. This tremendous time investment yields only modest returns. No organization made up of human beings is immune from the all-too-common meeting those that fail to engage, those that inadvertently encourage participants to tune out, and those that blatantly disregard participants' time. Most companies and leaders view poor meetings as an inevitable cost of doing business. But managers can take researchers now have a clear understanding of the key drivers that make meetings successful. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg, researcher and consultant to some of the world's most successful companies, draws from extensive research, analytics and data mining, and survey interviews with over 5,000 employees across a range of industries to share the proven practices and techniques that help managers and employees enhance the quality of their meetings. For those who lead and participate in meetings, Rogelberg provides immediate direction, guidance, and relief, offering a how-to guide to change your working life starting today.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Productivity, Professional Development, Psychology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Krystina · Rating 3 out of 5]

My takeaways:
1. Schedule not-one-hour meetings. 48 minutes or a 15 minute huddle are good alternatives to the 1 hr meeting. People are less likely to be late to a shorter meeting and have more time to get to their next task.
2. Assign participants to different topics covered on the agenda and give them enough heads up to prepare. Don’t reuse the same agenda — topics should be customized every meeting. The book provides a nice agenda template.
3. The more complicated the meeting task is, the fewer # of attendees should be invited. One example company had a rule of no more than 8 attendees for a task that needs to get accomplished, no more than 18 attendees for a brainstorming meeting, and no limit to the number of attendees if it’s a report-out meeting.
4. There are examples of silent meetings. The book explains a meeting style called “brainwriting”. Silent brainstorming during a meeting leads to more ideas and more creativity. Silent reading of an idea “can increase employees’ understanding and retention of the new idea and it can also save time by cutting out the presentation and decreasing pre-meeting preparation.”
5. “Leaders should cancel meetings when the items have already been addressed, when the reason for the meeting can be resolved using alternative methods (e.g., email), and when the needed attendees cannot be present.” Also, everyone appreciates a meeting that ends early.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m reluctantly in the corporate world. A qualified academic, I began my career in the higher education classroom with nary a thought of a “fall back.” When one became necessary I entered the business sector again, this time as an “over-qualified” editor. I read Steven G. Rogelberg’s The Surprising Science of Meetings as a kind of learning exercise (strictly off the clock, you understand). I found it amazing that you could be an academic specializing in meetings. For my doctorate I had to learn lots of dead languages and read many volumes of ancient history and religious theory. I wonder what you have to do to get a Ph.D. in meetingology?

In any case, this is a practical book. Rogelberg has analyzed how meetings work and their weak as well as strong points. The language is perhaps unsurprisingly more corporate than scientific. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but when I see “science” I still expect “hard science,” I guess. In any case, there are many good tips in here on how to be an effective meeting manager. Lots of insights from famous CEOs, if their opinions are worth noting. All along the real point is to better your bottom line—something that doesn’t come naturally to many of us of an academic bent.

As I noted on my blog post about the book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), the chapter on servant leadership was particularly good. If more people were interested in helping others instead of helping themselves, what a world we could have! Since time is short and businesses are all about efficiency, if you find yourself in a position of running meetings, this is a book for you. Practical and full of suggestions, it will give you ideas of how to make the best use of time spent with others. And although it’s not like a classroom lecture, it is a learning opportunity.

[Thomas Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is both amazing and terrible. So much amazing advice and knowledge told in the most annoying and padded way. If this book have been half as long, it would have felt more energetic and a lot less repetitive. Did I mention that the sentences and content in this book just keeps repeating and keeps being worded in a way that make it all seem as if there wasn't much to say, but that somebody was paid per word written? Like, if they wrote more words they would get more money. And chapters that where just references and a summery of precious chapters, that already include summaries and references to other chapters.

Google Rogelberg and watch his videoes... faster and less annoying

[Iman Shabani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was informative enough, and gave me some pointers to go on with.

I can't say the whole book feels that way, but if you are someone who needs to attend/lead meetings, it's definitely a useful read.

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I figured now is a good time to begin my prepping for the workforce phase of books, so be prepared for workplace/personal finance/adulting type books starting to enter my reviews.

This is my first goodreads dnf though. I got 8% in (finished the first chapter), and the author had already repeated the same fact three times. It's written like a high school essay, and I can't imagine finishing it even though it's under 200 pages. Hard pass unless you're in for a laugh because something about the author describing collecting data on meeting dissatisfaction by applause, and having the majority of the room clapping to indicate meetings are a waste of time is amusing. However, let this be the start of not wasting time reading bad books.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in a ton of meetings during the work day and I often say “when am I supposed to actually do my work?”. This books provides evidence-based solutions for meeting leaders. Looking forward to working with my team to improve meetings.

[Kevin Kelloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for every manager or for everyone who has to hold meetings at work. Drawing on an extensive body of research Steve Rogelberg has written an eminently practical guide for improving meetings in organizations. The book is replete with practical advice, tools and tips. Its an easy read (I read it on a 1.5 hour flight) but is a book that I will return to in the future.

[Cristine Braddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice quick overview on leading meetings more effectively. I took home quite a few ideas from this one.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the greatest book on meetings! If you're buying one book on meetings, this should be the one. Considering buying multiple copies and requiring my direct reports to read!

[Juraj Holub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good ideas in there.

[Kat Riethmuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takeaways:
Acknowledge that meetings can cause a lot of frustration, and assess your meetings to seek improvements.
Rather than getting rid of meetings, solve your problems with them by applying science.
Critically evaluate your meeting facilitation skills: Are they as good as you think they are?
Holding a meeting for 48 minutes will catch your colleagues’ attention.
Carefully craft meeting agendas. Make participants “directly responsible” owners of their agenda items.
Invite fewer participants to reduce “social loafing”; encourage input before and after from “secondary stakeholders.”
Walking and standing meetings add variety to your meeting culture and ensure that people “don’t get too comfortable in that chair.”
“Deflate negative energy from the start” and create technology-free meeting zones.
Encourage silence to bring out every team member’s input.
Pay special attention to audio-only telephone conferences.

Summary:
Acknowledge that meetings can cause a lot of frustration, and assess your meetings to seek improvements.
Everyone needs to meet for team discussions, interdepartment alignment and group decision making. But everyone needs to meet effectively. Meetings can cause frustration, especially when they waste time and energy due to a bad meeting culture.

Bad meetings should never be accepted as an organizational norm.
Think of the opportunity costs: While you’re stuck with your colleagues in a meeting, you all could be spending time doing real work. When your company manages meetings effectively, meetings add to productivity and organizational cohesion. And when it doesn’t, they add to cost. In 2014, meetings cost the United States’ economy about $1.4 trillion – roughly 8% of the nation’s GDP that year.

Rather than getting rid of meetings, solve your problems with them by applying science.
Employees have no lack of cynicism when it comes to meetings. Yet getting rid of all meetings is not feasible. Without meetings, you would lose contact with your colleagues, disconnect from other departments and become single-minded about difficult problems. Rather than eliminating meetings, improve them. “Meetings science,” the study of meetings and their dynamics through surveys or experimental studies, can help.

Critically evaluate your meeting facilitation skills: Are they as good as you think they are?
Start by reflecting on your skills at running meetings: How would you rate your meeting facilitation abilities? Judging from the “Lake Wobegon Effect” – named for radio commentator Garrison Keillor’s imaginary town “where all of the children are above average” – most people believe they are better than the average facilitator, which is statistically impossible.

A leader’s experience of the meeting appears to be fundamentally different from the experiences of other meeting attendees.
Rather than overestimating your skills, accept that you might have room for improvement, and strategically seek out opportunities to improve. You can, for example, gain input by asking meeting participants for feedback. If you feel that approaching them in person would bias the results, consider sending around a short, anonymous survey. Collecting data and being open to that information will increase your awareness of issues, which is the first step to improvement. Look for the following signals when assessing your meeting effectiveness:

Are participants on their phones or other devices, attempting to multitask?
Are a few participants talking all the time, while others aren’t speaking at all?
Are you, as the leader, dominating the meeting?
What differentiates successful meeting leaders from the unsuccessful ones is the willingness to pick the right tool for the job at hand.
Collect meeting feedback through different instruments, including your annual employee engagement survey. You could also make meetings part of any 360-degree feedback instrument that applies to leaders in your company. 

Adopt a “servant leadership” mind-set and buy into an idea by Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton, that you should be a “giver” who actively assists others and disseminates knowledge without expecting anything in return. Companies with strong servant leadership and giving cultures perform better across all business indicators.

Holding a meeting for 48 minutes will catch your colleagues’ attention.
How long should a meeting last? “Parkinson’s Law” reminds you that a meeting will fill in the time you allot it. When you schedule a meeting for 60 minutes, it will most likely take 60 minutes. Your tasks as a meeting leader include making a conscious choice about the meeting length. Consider your objectives, agenda items and number of participants to determine the best length for a meeting. Once you have an accurate estimate, reduce that estimate by 5% to 10% to add the extra time pressure that makes meetings more effective. Going forward, hold meetings that last 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes, or 50 minutes instead of 60. Or set an arbitrary length of 48 minutes to inspire participants’ attention.

Like playing dominos, how the meeting starts shapes the rest of the meeting.
In sports, coaches and team captains commonly use the term “huddle” to describe a brief team gathering before or after a practice or game action. Many companies, including Ritz Carlton, Zappos, Dell and even the Obama White House adopted this practice as a meeting format. Huddles last no longer than 15 minutes and take place at the same time every day. Teams often hold their huddles in the morning.

Carefully craft meeting agendas. Make participants “directly responsible” owners of their agenda items. 
The trainer at any “Meeting 101” business course will say you must have an agenda. However, research shows that merely having an agenda doesn’t yield more effective meetings. Instead, be intentional in the process of creating a meeting agenda, including customizing it to meet team needs and approaching team members to ask them to add their agenda items in advance. The rule of thumb is to prepare for an internal meeting as carefully as you would prepare for an external client meeting.

Short meetings with a focused agenda, facilitated effectively, can have tremendously positive effects.
Place important discussion items near the top of your agenda. The same holds true for items that participants have generated. Even if you convene the meeting, you don’t have to own every item. Increase accountability by assigning agenda items to participant-owners up front. In line with the advice from Death by Meetings author Patrick Lencioni, present the most salient and demanding items early. These topics usually will require more intensive exchange and alignment time. It’s most functional if you kick them off no later than 10% to 15% into the meeting time.

Adopting a strategy where agenda items are simply listed in the order received…or without critical thought, is highly counterproductive.
Make sure your agendas do not become obsolete or dull. Refresh them every time you meet. Encourage people who don’t participate to own a future agenda item, so some of them can become, according to Apple’s practice, a “directly responsible individual,” or “DRI.” Agendas are “a hollow crutch” unless you fill them with life.

Invite fewer participants to reduce “social loafing”; encourage input before and after from “secondary stakeholders.”
Is bigger always better? Or do bigger meetings become less effective and make things worse? You could argue that having more participants increases the wealth of ideas, diversity and resources. However, research from Bain & Company shows that seven participants per meeting hits the sweet spot. With more participants, decision-making effectiveness decreases by roughly 10% per additional participant above seven. Reasons for this decrease include logistics, coordination and social issues.

Never forget the one thing people dislike more than meetings: not being invited to a meeting.
How do you keep the number of participants low, while not offending colleagues by not inviting them? To strike this balance, revisit your meeting goals and determine who among your potential participants is absolutely indispensable to achieving those goals. In conjunction with this exercise, think about a “timed-agenda approach,” in which you invite certain participants to specific sections of your meeting. Alternatively, consider consulting with additional participants beforehand to collect their input. Take the best meeting notes you can, and share them afterward with secondary stakeholders. This is a best practice straight out of the Google playbook.

Walking and standing meetings add variety to your meeting culture and ensure that people “don’t get too comfortable in that chair.”
Most people are creatures of habit. That means that after you set up a routine meeting with a group, everyone will sit in exactly the same seat during every subsequent meeting. This can foment a stale meeting culture. Counteract this by introducing fresh ideas and subtle changes in the set-up:

Change the seating arrangement – Actively ask participants to sit in a different seat, change the table set-up or switch to another venue.
Conduct a “walking meeting” – Take the meeting agenda and your participants outdoors or on a circular walk through your building.
Hold your meeting standing – Participants in “standing meetings” gain health benefits and appreciate the efficiency of this shorter meeting format (15 to 20 minutes maximum).
“Deflate negative energy from the start” and create technology-free meeting zones.
Meetings enlivened with humor and laughter lead to more supportive team members, more constructive group dynamics and higher team performance. Negative comments lead to “mood contagion” that lowers performance. Paying attention to the emotions in your meetings is part of successful meeting leadership.

The research is clear on the concept of emotional contagion: Moods travel quickly.
How do you create positive moods in your meetings? Greet participants, offer refreshments or snacks, and play an upbeat song as they enter the room. Discourage multitasking. Some companies also create “technology-free zones,” banning personal laptops, phones and smart devices from meetings. Facilitate vivid team interaction, for example, by asking a participant to play the “devil’s advocate role.” This helps advance your project through critical thinking. Pay attention to and create space for positive energy and “mindfulness.” 

Encourage silence to bring out every team member’s input.
One plus one can equal three when you create synergies among team members. Especially in the more creative phases of teamwork – for example, when generating new ideas and thinking creatively – hearing every voice and including every person is essential. This may seem paradoxical, but creating silence to elicit all team members’ input can work wonders. Consider the following idea-generating techniques:

“Brainwriting” – Ask meeting participants to be silent and jot down their ideas before sharing them with others. Your objective is to generate unique ideas and to avoid “groupthink.”
“Silent reading” – Assign 10 to 30 minutes of silent reading for a new proposal and conceptual piece rather than having a person present the idea. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos promotes this technique, followed by discussion, at Amazon. This ensures participants evaluate a proposal on its merits and not on the eloquence of the presenter. 
Banning technology works best if the meetings are short and focused.
“Silence can be golden.” You don’t need to inject silence into every meeting, but it will improve your outcomes and participant satisfaction.

Pay special attention to audio-only telephone conferences.
What you’ve read so far is good for face-to-face meetings, but what about the “technology-related meetings” that are taking over the workplace? As much as you might crave a new formula for good meeting techniques in those circumstances, the same rules still apply to purpose, participant selection, agenda generation, meeting facilitation and follow-up. 

When someone is on mute, multitasking becomes almost a foregone conclusion.
Because audio-only meetings are tricky to lead, pay special attention to your format. The absence of social controls tempts participants to perform other tasks or embrace distractions while on the call – reducing meeting efficiency immensely. To counteract those shortcomings, ban the mute button at audio-only meetings and increase engagement by actively addressing participants by their names.

If I die, I hope it’s during a staff meeting because the transition to death would be so subtle.
If your audio meeting includes more than five people, consider forming smaller breakout teams who work on a certain task together and report back during the conference call. A variation of that approach is to use “intervals” in which you first hold a brief audio-only meeting of 15 minutes, and then work on the task collectively over a number of days using a “shared document.” This approach is effective for brainstorming and decision making. Mastering audio-only meetings is difficult, and you may feel great satisfaction when you lead them well.

[Matt Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook.
I enjoyed it. I'm going to use several of the techniques and am purchasing a copy for our corporate leadership library to reference. I am glad that I've had much of this training prior.
Also, at times the writer is shockingly funny. Not shocking like nasty, but hilarious with a dry sort of wit. That was also enjoyable. Because its a pretty dry topic.

[Doug Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and actionable. I could have wished for more nerdy science but that may be only because I haven't dug through the ridiculously extensive bibliography.

[Cari Borchert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this as a work assignment, and honestly, was reading the "takeaways" (ie cliff notes!) at the end of the chapters about halfway through, rather than dissecting the entire chapter. To me, this was mostly common sense - basically when you're running a meeting, don't do the things you hate yourself and that everyone complains about. There is always something to learn, however, and there were a few things I will try differently and/or shake things up from time to time, but overall, I didn't feel it was worth my time.

[Inka Partanen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have attended thousands of meetings and still I thought this book with it’s scientific approach could offer me something new or at least some food for thought. It did not.

It is, however, a comprehensive list of techniques and methods for better meetings so if you need ideas or haven’t ”seen it all”, have a look. For more expreienced meeting-goers I just recommend to keep learning from others and from your mistakes, this book probably won’t do much more.

[Beth Konarski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have made a strong article, but it is a disappointing book. It's insufficient.

[pokupine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meetings are so often a waste of time. This was such an enjoyable read with many practical strategies on how to make your meetings more efficient and productive.

[Cam Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 or 4 stars. Nothing groundbreaking. Validation for meeting approaches I’ve heard of/considered/tested.

Over the past year I’ve realized how big of a difference a good meeting has vs. a bad one. I’ve had a few meetings that I was in charge of run 3-4 hours, and was left stunned and clueless as to how I could’ve facilitated a shorter, more efficient meeting. It’s a lot harder to run a good, efficient meeting than I thought. I think different generations, different levels of tech-savvyness, old traditions, office politics, etc. all complicate running an effective meeting.

I will definitely experiment more confidently with some of the methods mentioned in here. I think being a newer and younger employee is a good opportunity to introduce new meeting approaches/methods/strategies. However, as mentioned in this book, meeting habits and culture must be transformed on an agency-level, not just by one person.

Meetings are good but sometimes unnecessary. When you calculate the hourly cost based on personnel salaries of those in attendance, meetings get very expensive.

Good leaders take accountability for good/bad meetings that they’re in charge of running. We often overestimate our meeting leading abilities. It’s important to get feedback on your meetings.

Parkinson’s Law = work expands to meet the allotted time. Setting a meeting for one hour means that meeting will likely reach one hour.

Running late is worse than starting late. It’s a violation of people’s time and trust.

Agendas on their own don’t improve meetings. Generic agendas are the worst. Ask for inputs on agendas and ask for reasons why certain things should be included. Only add those items that are worth it, explaining why some weren’t added. Order for the agenda matters. Assign DRIs (directly responsible individuals) to agenda items. Ensures accountability.

Gather inputs from people before a meeting so that not everyone has to attend the meeting. 7 people is a good rule of thumb maximum for a meeting.

Seating positions influence meeting effectiveness.

Create separation from the meeting and the rest of the work day. Greet people one by one. Play music. Be a good host. A meeting is an event. A meeting leader’s mood is a predictor for the group’s mood. Set a good tone.

Create technology-free meeting zones. If it’s a longer meeting you can build in a technology break.

Can build in silent reading time to meetings like Amazon does. I think I need to introduce these at my work. I’ve found that people aren’t always prepared/briefed on the material for meetings. People are very busy, so they can’t be blamed for that.

“Brain writing” is having attendees write down their ideas silently at the start of a meeting.

Meeting leaders are stewards of others’ time. Meeting leaders can use any “tool” they want for a meeting. Be open minded with using certain tools for different meeting goals.

Having one meeting for the introduction of options, and another meeting for a conclusion, both as separate meetings can be an efficient way to handle big decisions. I’m definitely going to use this approach at work. For major decisions where I’ve planned to discuss options and come to a conclusion, I’ve found that these almost always require follow-up meetings, so it’d be better to schedule them as two separate meetings to begin with.

Time allotments for agenda items aren’t necessary, but should be included on a case by case basis. If you violate a time allotment it defeats the purpose.

[Sharon Summerfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be a must read for anyone who attends, plans and facilitates meetings. Great suggestions captured in a succinct way. I like how the author had a summary at the end of each chapter and included charts and tools to use to improve meetings. We know meetings are here to stay in our professional and personal lives. I enjoyed the idea from Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, referring to loss of time to stealing office equipment.

This thought from the book, represented for me how we can have meetings in different ways. "...the goal should actually be to eliminate and ineffective and bloated meetings - it is still important to take stock of what meetings are implicitly and explicitly costing an organization and what the return on investment is."

Many great insights highlighted in this book:
-take the time to plan for your meeting and consider if a meeting is needed.
-build better agendas, that look at your purpose and why to meet and take time to plan
-consider the type of meeting that will help you work towards your goals and make decisions
-use timed agendas when you have multiple speakers
-create more transition time between meetings.
-shorten the time of your meetings, the longer your meeting the more time you will fill
-start your meetings on time and end them early.
-move updates to the end of the meeting or better yet send an update via e-mail
-get the right people in the room, less is more, and ensure everyone is participating
-survey attendees to gain their insights on how the meeting went,
-reach out to others for input on the topics to be discussed; even when they will not be attending the meeting.
-identify someone who will take meeting notes and capture action items, live during the meeting., that is different than the chair.
- and so much more

I like how the author included different ideas, such as using food to encourage attendees to arrive on time and stay engaged throughout the meeting. Food is a great way to get people together to connect, share ideas and make decisions, especially when schedules are tight.

Great book! This book would also complement Give and Take and the Art of Gathering.

[Elwin Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I liked it." - 3 out of 5 star rating.

A decent professional development read for those of us that are fighting within the meeting battlefront on a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly basis.

The stats game initially here is fun, with the 55 million meetings a day/1+ trillion dollars a year spent across the United States.

Proceeding that, the remainder of the book focuses on how to make meetings better from a variety of different angles such as conducting analysis on each meeting, asking for feedback, start-stop times, overall time, agendas, engagement, efficiency, so on and so forth.

All of the above is nothing new, or as they say 'not rocket science'... but what I can appreciate is that this book puts the critical thinking about meetings themselves front and center in your mind. This will guide and traverse you down making meetings better for sure.

What I don't like and why this isn't ranked higher on the star chart... this book unfortunately suffers from a lot of reuse.

Ideas that are presented earlier on in the book are recycled and regurgitated again, and again, and then... again. Things like discouraging multi-tasking, standing/walking meetings, seating arrangement, banning the mute button, etc... once you hear them again for the 3rd and 4th time and to add insult to injury is spoken in a way as if it was the first time the idea was being presented - big dislike for me.

Imagine reading a book about hunting and having 3 separate chapters all discuss the same archery concepts. I don't think that would yield a positive result for the reader experience in that scenario, and it certainly feels the same way here.

In closing - want a quick read about making meetings 'more better'? This while far from perfect or any sort of grand masterpiece/awakening, shall suffice well enough.

[Jesseanneo · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of meetings in my life, and I've taken a lot of professional development about meeting development and facilitation so if there's a refresher or a new perspective, I'd like to be on top of it. This book rehashed much of what I already knew but if your group has meetings that are less than productive, this might be good for you.

The stuff I already knew: agenda purpose, the right people at the meeting, you don't always need an hour, don't have a static agenda, it's hard to connect remotely, remind people of the purpose and their roles, timed agendas (I'm in favor even if it's a guideline; they waffle on this), culture of collaboration, self-aware leaders and mtg facilitators.

The one section I found novel was the one on "brainwriting" and silence at meetings. I'm familiar with: group breakouts, taking a moment to read source material or a new draft, taking a moment to generate some new ideas or decide how to vote on ideas. But doing some of the strategy and thinking-through in the meeting vs just weighing in or brainstorming was interesting to read. (Especially with exhausting, 2-day, "on" in-person meetings.)

In summary: if you already have done a lot of work on improving your meetings, this might not be for you. If you haven't, it's a good skim-through summary. The writing isn't terribly engaging and reminds me of every out-of-the-box corporate consultant but it's fine.

[Ganesh Sreeramulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was recommended this book by a friend. It was a very quick read. The first question that popped up into my mind was - "Is there a science to meetings?" . But as I was quickly devouring the pages, it augured upon me, most of the pains of meetings are something I have experienced as a part of corporate life. But why didn't I think of the ways to address it, especially as it seemed so apparent when the author put it. Maybe just a small matter of the author addressing it in an empirical fashion. I found myself inadvertently nodding my head as I read the recommendations of the author to have a "Super productive meeting"

Couple of lines that have now been etched into my memory for eternity.

"The abundance of meetings at our company is the Cultural Tax we pay for the inclusive, learning environment that we want to foster"

"If you liken a meeting to a type of communication technology, could this actually be one of the largest unidentified line items in a corporate budget? There is no other single investment of this magnitude that an organization makes that is treated in such a cavalier manner"


My personal takeaways

1. Decrease 5% time of my daily meetings
2. Silence Time
3. Brainwriting
4. Magic Time (let me not spoil it for you, go read the book)

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us in the corporate world who have the responsibility of communicating through meetings, this book is a solid read. Lots of practical advice on how to ensure your meetings are productive, effective, engaging and valued by attendees. I would have given this 5 stars if the audiobook included a PDF of the tools - it was inefficient to manually type (and re-listen) out the survey questions, checklists etc. which I could have simply copied or printed from a PDF. I will probably re-listen to chapter 11 "putting it all together" multiple times in the future.

Action(s) I'll take as a result of this book:
-take a benchmark of my team meetings using short survey, and gather input from the team
-add section assignments to my agenda sent out in advance
-re-assess meeting engagement, compare to benchmark, periodically ~6 months
-incorporate quiet periods into the meeting e.g. move pre-reading into the meeting itself
-shorten meeting times to only what is necessary, even / especially if it's a non-standard time e.g. the monthly 60 minute team meeting might be 48 minutes this month, 52 next etc.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down, although I admit that some of that may have been due to how applicable it felt to me at this moment rather than the value of the book as a whole. If you are having/ leading lots of dysfunctional meetings (or lots of meetings in general), then I would absolutely recommend checking it out. If you don't spend a ton of time in meetings, this may have limited applicability to you. It had some excellent points about the costs of meetings, and presented the research (and some very good advice) in an accessible way. To be honest, I think my biggest complaint was actually how repetitive it was, which kind of made this (very short) book kind of drag. On the one hand, I understand that repetition is important for long-term learning and retention, so for part of the book I felt like I at least understood this choice by the author. But particularly because this didn't feel excessively applicable to me right now, by the end of the book I was pretty tired of it.

[Melissa Riggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few good points, but really this could have just been an informative blog post rather than an entire book.

"Most companies and leaders view poor meetings as an inevitable cost of doing business. But managers can take heart: researchers now have a clear understanding of the key drivers that make meetings successful. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg, researcher and consultant to some of the world's most successful companies, draws from extensive research, analytics and data mining, and survey interviews with over 5,000 employees across a range of industries to share the proven practices and techniques that help managers and employees enhance the quality of their meetings. For those who lead and participate in meetings, Rogelberg provides immediate direction, guidance, and relief, offering a how-to guide to change your working life starting today."

[Jon Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for anyone who wants to improve the quality of their meetings.

This book is packed with evidence-based, actionable advice on practical all areas surrounding leading and facilitating meetings. Before reading, I honestly had not idea how many different factors contributed a successful vs failed meeting. Not only does Rogelberg help readers set the stage for a good meeting---whether through effective time-management or identifying the correct number of participants---but he also touches upon the human-related aspects that influence meeting effectiveness. Rogelberg provides a deep dive in what roles and responsibilities both leaders and participants have towards improving the quality of meetings, and how to bring the best out of these people.

This is a straightforward and easy-to-read guide that provides ideas you can begin implementing Day 1 of reading. 5/5.

[Food Is · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought it was bloated, even the overviews at the end of the chapters. A lot of common sense. I like The Art of Gathering better.

Biggest takeaways:
- mix things up
- keep it simple, and when done be done
- use "parking lot"
- use small huddles for smaller, quick meetings, keep meetings only for key stakeholders.
- to mitigate hurt feelings at being left out, ask for their input ahead of time and send meeting notes, or invite to attend a portion of mtg
- in a true meeting, synergy = whole is greater than the sum of the parts
-delegate parts of agenda to keep it fresh
- silence can stimulate thought; silent "brainwriting"
- openings: acknowledge attendees, ice breaker, offer appreciation, lead with Question, all good options
- ending: assign tasks, summarize, end on positive note.

[Raja Sunkara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people intuitively conduct meetings well. This book is a life saver for the rest of us.

The author discusses the following topics - preparation of an agenda, meeting time, number of attendees, how to start a meeting, etc. He backs them up with scientific evidence as the title suggests.

I have been conducting meetings for a few years now. I do circulate an agenda in advance. But it is generally the same for successive meetings. Only the date changes. After having read this book, I should be able to prepare a more engaging agenda.

On multiple occasions, I have called more people than needed to meetings. This had led to meetings overshooting allocated time. I hope to correct these mistakes by using the ideas discussed in this book.

Read the book for many other inputs.

[Serge Perrin Merinos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven Rogelberg's book offers practical strategies for improving meeting effectiveness and productivity. He emphasizes the importance of breaking away from traditional meeting formats and focusing on engagement, participation, and time management. Key takeaways from the book come as follows:
• Optimize meeting duration: Avoid hour-long meetings and consider shorter options like 48-minute sessions or 15-minute huddles.
• Prepare and engage participants: Assign specific topics to participants beforehand, customize agendas for each meeting, and limit attendance based on the meeting's complexity.
• Embrace innovative techniques: Explore silent brainstorming methods like "brainwriting" to foster creativity and reduce presentation time.
• Conduct thoughtful meeting evaluations: Gather feedback from attendees to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments.
There are additional insights. To improve meeting effectiveness, he says it is essential to invest time in planning, develop clear agendas, select the appropriate meeting format, utilize timed agendas, and create transition time. Respecting participants' time by starting and ending meetings on time is also crucial. I’m not too sure about his suggestion to prioritize updates by moving them to the end of meetings or sharing them via email. But I also agree that you must ensure the right people are involved and create an inclusive environment to encourage participation. Finally, gathering feedback through surveys or discussions helps identify areas for improvement.
While the book provides valuable insights, it's important to note that some of the suggested activities may not be directly applicable to remote teams, which is too bad. However, the core principles of effective meeting management remain relevant, regardless of the work environment.

[My Pen Name is Ophelia Wordsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I was picking up a laboratory managerial position, and really enjoyed their recommendations and innovations for meetings, and really more broadly about team leadership. I will say, it got a bit dull throughout (I nearly stopped about 3/4 of the way through) - but perhaps that is partially my own fault, as I am more accustomed to works of fiction! ;)

I read it in Kindle form - I wonder whether a print version of the book would have been better for me for either a more piecemeal approach, or faster bulk reading?