It's Okay to Say No: How to Implement a No-Meeting Policy

Whether you enjoy them or not, meetings can take up a large chunk of your workday. It's how you share updates, brainstorm on projects, and get things done. But are they a necessary evil or just evil?

Even before the pandemic, a majority of managers thought meetings were costly and unproductive. Because of the shift to remote work, meetings have steadily grown in length and frequency to compensate for this loss of face-to-face interactions.

Studies show too many meetings negatively affect people's psychological and physical well-being. It also detracts from effective collaboration, derails workers who are in the zone and focused, and interrupts people's train of thought.

A no-meeting policy has many advantages, however there are some downsides due to the law of diminishing returns. With remote work, the risk of isolation is high. Leadership needs to create opportunities for socialization. Informal, "virtual watercooler" meetings can effectively fulfill humans' need for socialization.

How to implement a No-Meetings Practice:

Communicate with your team: Be sure to ask your team for feedback before changing current meeting practices; inform them why you're changing and how the change will benefit them. 

Encourage informality: Informal interactions allow your team to share their interests and personalities. Create a chat thread where team members can discuss memes, gifs, sports, holiday plans, and other things that are going on in their lives. The barriers of formality are removed in your company when informal conversations flow.

Restructure your meetings:  A company's biggest challenge in making the transition to no-meeting days is finding a new, effective way to collaborate. It's easy for employees to fall back into old routines, so set up ground rules that will help them adjust to the new approach.

Implementing a no-meeting policy for your organization can improve efficiency, prevent disruption, and eliminate wasted time from meetings. Too many meetings are a detriment, and putting off eliminating some of them can be costly.