‘Meetings Matter’ research shared at Rowan Chamber breakfast

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) - Meetings at work. They can be productive and worthwhile or a crashing bore. What’s the difference between a stand-up meeting or one where the participants have a seat? Does it matter?

Apparently it does.

On Thursday a well-known expert on the subject addressed business leaders on that topic and provided some useful advice on how to have truly effective meetings.

UNC Charlotte Professor Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg spoke to over 120 business leaders at the Rowan Chamber Power in Partnership (PIP) breakfast on Thursday morning about the science and research behind successful meetings.

He is a nationally recognized author and television celebrity and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, BBC World and several other national and international news programs.

Rowan-Cabarrus Community College sponsored the event.

“We are wallowing in bad meetings,” said Rogelberg. He cited the statistic that 78% of senior managers say there are too many meetings and they are the ones calling them. He offered several tips for improving the productivity of meetings, from setting a 48 minute time limit to standing meetings, to “brainstorm in silence” and using your computers to share ideas in meetings prior the manager sharing their ideas. He offered the “Quick 6″ ideas to fix your meetings and an additional “Agenda Innovation Training” tip.

Rogelberg said more productive meetings will result in more engaged employees on the job afterwards and conversely bad meetings lead to “meeting recovery syndrome” where everyone talks about how bad the meeting was and results in loss of productivity. He said everyone is responsible for making meetings better.

His book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance, was available for sale with all proceeds going to Rowan Helping Ministries. The Chamber sold out of all the copies he brought with him. His new book, Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings comes out in January.

Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist, holds the title of Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte for distinguished national, international and interdisciplinary contributions. He is an award-winning teacher and recipient of the very prestigious Humboldt Award for his research on meetings. Adam Grant has called Steven the “worlds leading expert on how to fix meetings”.

The Chamber’s next PIP will be on Dec. 14 with Tara Nylese, “10 Minute Mindfulness” as the keynote speaker. For more information, contact the Rowan Chamber at 704.633.4221 or info@rowanchamber.com or www.rowanchamber.com