TED Talk Tuesday #190 – How to save the world, or at least yourself, from bad meetings

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part on spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk is posted by Llewellyn du Plessis. Here’s why he chose it:

“Let’s have a meeting…” is a phrase used very lightly in corporates. Most of the time an hour meeting could have been a short 3 sentence email and would have been actioned event before the set meeting date. Many people, and event more so in corporate environments, don’t have the confidence to take action or in many cases don’t have the authority to do so. This causes meetings to be scheduled to discuss upcoming and pas meetings…and before you know it you are stuck in 8 to 9 meetings in an eight hour work day and no work was done. This raises the question on when you should action the tasks discussed in the various meetings you had.

This TED Talk by David Grady resonated with my dislike towards meetings.. especially meetings that are not planned well. I hope this video inspires you to host more meaningful meetings and cancel those that could be an email.