5 neuroscience-backed ways to make meetings less painful and more productive

Meetings rarely bring us joy. Many are inefficient, boring, stream-of-consciousness downloads: the same people dominating the conversation, too many people in the room, and too few decisions. Meetings aren’t necessarily painful because people have nothing to contribute or dislike collaboration. Meetings are painful because they aren’t designed around how people think and work together. They suffer from unclear purpose, inadequate thinking time, poor group dynamics, predictable discussions, and vague decisions. If we’re honest, we have become too accepting of meetings that waste time. Meeting fatigue produces plenty of eye-rolling, but rarely prompts us to redesign meetings around what really adds value: debate, alignment, and decision-making. It is time to expect more from meetings. There are five principles for getting more value from the time we spend thinking together, based on neuroscience research and my almost 20 years of leading senior strategic problem-solving projects. 1. Get razor-sharp clarity up front Many meetings begin with an unclear focus. People spend a good chunk of the meeting figuring out what they are there to solve. Ambitious discussions take place without th…