Steven Rogelberg on Transforming Academic Meetings (CAL130, S7E3)

Dr. Steven Rogelberg, an organisational psychologist from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, draws on his extensive research on workplace meetings to share how we might make acadmic meetings better. We discuss the inefficiencies of academic meetings, with Steven suggesting academics suffer from particularly ineffective meeting practices. He offers practical advice on improving meeting productivity, particularly for Faculty meetings, such as using targeted agendas and smaller group discussions, and stresses the value of bringing scientific rigour to meeting management. He also critiques the hybrid meeting format, advocating instead for fully virtual or in-person meetings. If you are looking for more insights about evidence-based meeting practices, I can highly recommend his books 'The Surprising Science of Meetings' and 'Glad We Met: The Art and Science of One-to-One Meetings' . 

Overview:

00:29 Introduction: The Meeting Dilemma

01:42 Introducing Dr. Steven Rogelberg

03:56 The Academic Meeting Problem

09:23 Common Mistakes in Leading Meetings

11:06 Strategies for Effective Meetings

13:12 Having a Meeting About Meetings

14:34 The Importance of Feedback and Audits

15:55 The Faculty Meeting

18:15 Challenges of Large and Hybrid Meetings

19:21 More Inclusive Alternatives to Large Meetings

22:20 Hybrid Meetings and Virtual Meetings

23:54 Final Takeaways and Resources

25:46 Postscript

30:16 End

Related links:

Steven's web page, LinkedIn page and online meeting resources

https://www.stevenrogelberg.com

Steven's books:

Rogelberg, S. G. (2019). The surprising science of meetings: How you can lead your team to peak performance. Oxford University Press.

Rogelberg, S. G. (2024). Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1: 1 Meetings. Oxford University Press.

And his academic publications, for example the two we mentioned:

Rogelberg, S., Kreamer, L. M., & Gray, J. (2025). Thirty Years of Meeting Science: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 13.

Rogelberg, S. G., King, E. B., & Alonso, A. (2022). How we can bring IO psychology science and evidence-based practices to the public. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 15(2), 259-272.

And here is a template to help you reflect on your meetings.