Less Meetings, More Connection
Creating the possibility for true connection in the workplace.
Meetings might be one of the main paradoxes of modern-day management. Many complain about having too many meetings, yet their importance is oftentimes underrated.
If meetings are the embodiment of so many expectations and frustrations, it may be because every single one of them holds the potential for true connection, especially connection with those who can define and promote our desired working culture. As rewarding as they are pragmatic, true connections make us feel seen, heard, and sometimes moved. They also reinstate us in our humanity as we can see, hear, and sometimes move the other person.
“Can we engineer true connections in the workplace?”, asked the Mouse
To address this question, let’s look at the three main functions of meetings: (i) to share or analyse content, (ii) to start or progress a process, (iii) to nurture or manage relationships.
These functions are reflected in many good practices on meeting management:
Content: come prepared and briefed on the topic at hand.
Relationship: align expectations and identify common references.
Process: focus on practicality and effectiveness (agenda, action points…).
If true connections result from good meeting management, then it is possible to utilise soft skills, as well as effective briefing skills, to cultivate trust in different contexts. Indeed, relationship and process management contribute to providing a sense of safety, and the possibility for collaboration, while knowledge and effective facilitation contribute to productivity, an overarching management requirement. In addition, this skillset helps to settle the dynamics of power and status between meeting participants.
However, despite the necessity of good meeting management, it is not sufficient to guarantee true connections, as one still needs to be “open” to its importance. In a professional context, emotional availability derives from the ability to relieve ourselves from the pressure of being productive. Of course, paradoxically, we can only achieve that by being or demonstrating that we could be productive to reassure ourselves, or others.
Our ability to be open also depends on several other factors, many which are beyond the professional sphere. Hence, there is a certain mystery to true connections - “when stars aligned”, - so to speak, which gives them their value.
In conclusion, we could reframe the question from the Mouse: « How can we relieve ourselves from the pressure to be productive and raise our consciousness to create the possibility for true connections? »
It’s a humbling and rewarding journey. Embarking on it together is already a connection.
Baptiste Raymond - 02/2022.