Shani Harmon: Barriers, Signaling, Untapped Productivity | Work 20XX #05

Bad meetings are the bane of the modern working world. The back-to-back, uninterrupted energy crushers have only gotten worse over the last two years. We’re asked to be “always-on” and ready to jump on the next notification (i.e. email, message, IM, DM, text, etc.). This type of work culture is burning people out to the point we gave it a name: “The Great Resignation.”

There’s a better way. 

Welcome to Work 20XX. A show focused on work and the future of work, as the world of 2019 fades further into the distance. I wanted to move from beyond meeting bashing to sharing best practices. And while some organizations and consumers of expensive executive time do invest in this most important skill, most don’t, and assume that somehow, people will get it. We’re still collectively battling “We’ve always done it this way.” 

Welcome Shani Harmon, Co-Founder & CEO of ‘Stop Meeting Like This.’ Shani shares the best practices, tips, and tricks that many of our managers seem to miss, including when NOT to have a meeting (i.e. weekly status meetings). 

And while we already know many of the tasks to improve the probability of success (e.g. agenda, objectives, clear roles for each participant), Shani shines a light on many of the gravitational forces, (e.g. institutional, cultural, social, and psychological) that keep us from being more effective, including fear of missing out (FOMO), office politics, and lack of trust due to ineffective communication cultures, channels, and systems.

Hopefully, this combination of simple instruction, and focus on the real barriers to implementation, will help you and your team learn and adopt the mindset and techniques to start gradually removing barriers.

You’ll end up with more effective meetings, more effective people, higher quality work, and less burnout. And you won’t have to ask your people to turn the cameras on.  

Without further delay, enjoy this conversation with Shani Harmon.

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