Rebecca Hinds: Your Best Meeting Ever

Rebecca Hinds is a leading expert on organizational behavior and the future of work. She founded and led the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and the Work AI Institute at Glean, where she partners with leading experts to help organizations transform their work with AI. She is the author of Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

Considering the amount of time we all spend in meetings, it’s odd that most organizations do so little to measure meeting results. If that’s sounding familiar, this conversation between Rebecca and me will show you exactly how to get started.

Key Points

Metrics that only measure the costs of meetings (dollars and time) can be useful, but rarely capture the full picture.
Use Return on Time Invested (ROTI) anonymously to survey attendees to determine if a meeting was a good use of time. Also ask, “What would it take for you to improve your rating by one point?”
Survey sparingly to avoid survey fatigue. Bringing in a survey 10% of the time is a benchmark to start from.
If the amount of time in meetings vastly exceeds 10 hours a week, there’s likely an opportunity to scale back or redefine the work before or after meetings to use time better.
Equal speaking time in meetings is a key indicator of team performance. Be transparent with employees about any technology you use to capture data.
Punctuality and attendance rate are indicators of how valued meetings are for people.

Resources Mentioned

Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done by Rebecca Hinds (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

How to Lead Meetings That Get Results, with Mamie Kanfer Stewart (episode 358)
Moving Towards Meetings of Significance, with Seth Godin (episode 632)
How to Lead Engaging Meetings, with Jess Britt (episode 721)

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772: How to Measure Your Meeting’s Success, with Rebecca Hinds

Coaching for Leaders