Too Many Meetings? But Are They The "Broccoli of Work?"

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Day after day, I read articles in which employees complain about too many meetings and writers offer advice for eliminating the unnecessary meetings that clog our schedules.  Yet, a new study offers strong empirical evidence of the value of meetings.  David Deming and his colleagues have authored a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that describes meetings as "the broccoli of work – widely disliked, but probably good for us anyway."  

Deming and his colleagues used a unique Norwegian dataset to study the value of meetings.  They collected data from administrative registers compiled by Statistics Norway.  This dataset contained information about employee careers, mobility, and wage growth from 2022-2024.  They also compiled survey data from approximately 10,000 individuals.  

The study finds that meetings do account for a substantial chunk of worker time.   Meetings most often involve planning, coordination, problem solving, and project updates.  While meetings are time consuming and come with opportunity costs, they provide critical value.  The scholars find that, 

"Meeting frequency and intensity are positively related to worker wage growth. Workers in meeting-intensive firms report greater on-the-job learning, and interactions with more senior colleagues are associated with stronger wage growth, suggesting that knowledge transmission within firms is an important mechanism."

Thus, the scholars conclude that meetings are similar to eating broccoli.  We may not enjoy them, but perhaps they are quite good for us.  Why?  They are critical sources of organizational and personal learning.  The human connection matters.  We learn when we interact with others, ask questions, listen to them, and share our ideas.  We cannot replace that source of learning with brief exchanges via technological platforms such as email, text, Slack, etc.   Therefore, perhaps we should complain less about how many meetings we must attend, and focus more on how to make them more productive.  

Overreliance on our Willpower

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How can we break a bad habit at work or in our personal lives?  Well, we just have to muster enough willpower.  That's what many of us tell ourselves.  The old cliche is clear:  When there's a will, there's a way.  Of course, an alternative strategy exists.  We could employ commitment strategies, or put another way, some external form of assistance.  For example, we might team up with a friend who helps us be accountable for achieving certain results (such as going to the gym on a regular basis). Or, we might commit to a negative repercussion if we fall back into a bad habit (such as forcing ourselves to refrain from watching our favorite Netflix show).

New research by Ariella Kristal and Julian Zlatev suggests that many people may be relying far too much on willpower rather than employing an effective commitment strategy.  HBS Working Knowledge recently published a feature story about their research and identified three main conclusions that may explain why we rely far too heavily on willpower when we try to break a bad habit:

1. "People trust others who use willpower more than commitment strategies. "

2. "People question the integrity of those who choose commitment strategies."

3. "People worry that using a commitment strategy makes them look bad."

In short, our worries about others' perceptions and judgments cause us to rely too heavily on our own willpower when trying to break a bad habit.  We think that we are signaling virtue, but in so doing, we are choosing a far less effective strategy.  Consider that finding the next time you think that willpower alone will help you avoid unproductive patterns of behavior. 

New Apple CEO John Ternus on Confidence & Humility

Source: NBC News

Fortune's Emma Burleigh has a short feature on new Apple CEO John Ternus. This week, he takes over as chief executive at Apple, succeeding long-time leader Tim Cook. Burleigh writes,

“Always assume you’re as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume that you know as much as they do,” Ternus told University of Pennsylvania’s engineering graduates in 2024. “With this mindset, you’ll find the confidence you need to push forward, but more importantly, the humility to ask questions and learn.”

“I’ll always be grateful that I wasn’t afraid to ask for help when I needed it,” Ternus said. “Because being around people that care that deeply, it won’t just make you want to stretch your limits and see how far you can go, but they’re also the best people to help you understand how to get there."

I love the distinction that Ternus has made here.  He's arguing that we should be confident in our abilities - our intelligence and our potential.  At the same time, he's advocating for humility.  He's arguing that we should recognize that, in any given situation, there are others who know things that we do not know.  We need to acknowledge the limits of our knowledge, be curious, and ask questions.  By seeking to uncover what others know, we can make better decisions.  In short, we should be confident in our capacity to solve problems and make good choices, but humble about the knowledge that we possess before we have begun to engage with, and learn from, others around us.