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

Source: Getty Images

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.  

What's Good for Our Kids is Great for Us Too!

Source: theladders.com

If you have not read Jonathan Haidt's amazing book, The Anxious Generation, I highly recommend it. Haidt makes a great case for banning smartphones in schools. Now, many school systems have adopted his advice. Early results suggest that the policies are having a positive impact on learning. I do not allow phones in my university classroom, and I'm confident that removing this distraction improves our dialogue considerably.

If this smartphone policy is good for our kids, shouldn't it be good for us as well? In today's Wall Street Journal, Chip Cutter writes an article titled "CEOs Are Furious About Employees Texting in Meetings."  He writes:

A few weeks ago, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky asked his top lieutenants to identify the problems they saw quietly plaguing the company. Chesky called it the “fester list.” One executive threw out an issue: Too many Airbnb employees weren’t present in meetings because they were checking their phones or laptops. “It’s a huge problem,” Chesky said. Then the chief had a realization. He was guilty of zoning out, too. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘OK, I heard it. I know what you’re about to say. I know the subject matter,’” Chesky said. “I text, but then people see me text, they text. This is a major societal problem.”

Cutter cites leaders from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to QXO CEO Brad Jacobs about the challenges of distraction during meetings.  Many leaders have become incredibly frustrated by the disconnected conversations, lack of collaboration, and poor listening occurring during meetings.  Of course, many of us would say that we turn to our phones because many meetings are long, dull, and boring.  However, we have ask ourselves:  Isn't that what our kids would say about classes in which they would love to use their phone?  Are we just rationalizing our use of phones during meetings in the same way students often do?  How about the "what if there is an emergency?" excuse?  Ask yourself: Just how many true emergencies do we experience in a week?  Moreover, we can easily set our phones such that people won't disturb us unless it is truly an emergency.   Yet, we choose not to do so.  I'm just as much of a culprit as many others I know.  

You can see the self-reinforcing mess we have on our hands.  We jump to our phone because a meeting is boring.  Then, because we are distracted and not listening actively to others, the meeting discussion drags on endlessly.  The collaboration breaks down, and we end up needing yet another meeting to get key matters resolved.  We have to break this endless unproductive loop.  Team leaders need to establish a new contract with their team members.  They will focus the meeting, tighten the agenda, and avoid repeated tangents.   In return, they ask that team members stay off their phones.  Try it out. See what happens.  My guess?  The results will be very positive, much as they are in schools.  

Managing Cognitive Load During Long Meetings

What is cognitive overload and why is it important to consider as managers? The Mayo Clinic describes this challenge as follows: "When there is too much information to process, you may feel cognitive overload. This happens when you reach a point of paralysis of information — not being able to process and then act on what is heard."

When I'm teaching, I always try to be very aware of the cognitive load that I'm imposing on students.  I want them to be engaged in challenging and rigorous analysis, solving tough problems, and debating with their peers.  The cognitive load can be very high at times. I'm cold-calling intermittently.  They have to be on their toes.  However, I try to shift gears pretty frequently during class, knowing that the best teaching often has a change in pace, content, or pedagogy every 10-12 minutes.  When I change things up, I might occasionally engage students in a brief task that offers them a bit of a cognitive break.  For example, I might show a quick video about the company or leader we are discussing, or I may ask them to ask them to get up and go to the whiteboard to brainstorm some options for the company moving forward.  The students are still engaging in critical thinking, but this shift gives them a bit of a cognitive break.  They are engaging in something a bit less stressful, and/or they are moving around a bit in the room.  Then, in a few minutes, they are ready to dive into a different, quite complex issue.  

This same approach to managing cognitive load can be useful in meetings, particularly those that are lengthy in duration.  Having people sit in their chairs for hours discussing a series of complex financial performance metrics can be difficult.  People will eventually become less attentive and productive. They may find their cognitive performance deteriorating due to fatigue and stress.  Therefore, managers need to think about giving them a cognitive break during these meetings.  That does not just mean having a coffee break here or there.  You can intermittently introduce lighter topics or a brief activity that gets them out of their chairs and up to the whiteboards.  Movement, change of pace, and topic selection all help to manage cognitive load in a way that leads to more effective meetings. 

Your Brain on Zoom: Not Good?

Fortune's Orianna Rosa Royle reported this week on a new study by Nan Zhao, Xian Zhang, J. Adam Noah, Mark Tiede, and Joy Hirsch, published in Imaging Neuroscience.  The research examined the brain activity of people engaged in Zoom meetings vs. in-person meetings.  The scholars discovered that face-to-face interactions led to enhanced brain activity.    They wrote that,  "the exchange of social cues is greater for the in-person condition."  Specifically, the scholars reported:

Findings from this investigation suggest that differences occur at the visual sensing level (mean and standard variation of eye contact duration); the behavioral level (coherence and diameters of pupils); the electrocortical level (theta oscillations); the neuroimaging level (contrast between in-person and on-line faces); and the dyadic neural coupling level (coherence between neural signals in the dorsal parietal regions).   

Co-author Joy Hirsch told Fortune, “Zoom appears to be an impoverished social communication system relative to in-person conditions. Overall, the dynamic and natural social interactions that occur spontaneously during in-person interactions appear to be less apparent or absent during Zoom encounters.”  She concluded, "“Online representations of faces, at least with current technology, do not have the same ‘privileged access’ to social neural circuitry in the brain that is typical of the real thing."

What does it mean for those of us who do engage in hybrid work?  We have to think carefully about the type of work being done virtually vs. in-person, and we have to focus on the intensity of the collaboration required during meetings.  Some types of collaboration may be more suited to in-person interaction.  Moreover, we must consider how virtual engagement with others may affect our ability to read social cues and ultimately how the ability to read those cues impacts our ability to build effective working relationships.     

Calculating the Cost of Meetings

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Kaz Nejatian, Chief Operating Officer of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify, has created a meeting cost calculator for his organization. Nejatian developed the software program to calculate the cost of meetings during a company hack-a-thon. According to Nejatian, meetings per worker have declined by 14% this year, and productivity has risen.  Bloomberg's Matthew Boyle describes this innovative new approach to curtailing excessive meetings:

The Canadian e-commerce company has rolled out a calculator embedded in employees’ calendar app that estimates the cost of any meeting with three or more people. The tool uses average compensation data across roles and disciplines, along with meeting length and attendee count, to put a price tag on the event.

A typical 30 minute endeavor with three employees can run from $700 up to $1,600. Adding an executive — like Chief Operating Officer Kaz Nejatian, who built the program during a company-wide hack day — can shoot the cost above $2,000.

As I read about this article, I contemplated why excessive meetings sometimes take place.  Many reasons exist - positive and negative.  For example, sometimes leaders really are trying to give a range of people an opportunity to provide input, and they are involving others to build buy-in for a course of action.  On other occasions, though, leaders are simply engaging in what Michael Watkins calls the "charade of consultation." In other words, they hold the meeting to make it seem as though they are soliciting input, but in fact, they have already made up their mind.  It's all a show.  Another reason we have excessive meetings in many organizations is that managers want to avoid accountability and responsibility.   They call others to meetings so as to avoid being put on the spot if a plan goes awry.  They intentionally create a "when everyone is responsible, no one is responsible" culture.  Without a doubt, many unnecessary or unproductive meetings take place every day in organizations.  

Is there any danger though in trying to reduce the number of meetings?  First and foremost, some issues are better hashed out as a group, rather than in one-on-one conversations or email threads.   If we eliminate meetings, but simply replace them with a long set of email threads, we may not truly be increasing productivity.  In fact, we just be shifting our time from one form of communication to another, and one that is perhaps more inefficient.  Second, successful implementation of key initiatives requires a great deal of coordination.  Moreover, it requires a strong shared understanding of the plan, something that may not be achievable without critical meetings.  Third, employees may come to feel as though decision-making processes are not fair, if they are left out of the deliberation process.  If they don't feel as though they have been given voice, then they may not commit and buy into the plans being enacted.   Finally, plenty of learning can take place in meetings, as junior employees soak in knowledge from discussions and analysis undertaken.  Moreover, they watch how others conduct themselves, make presentations, and answer hard questions.  This on-the-spot learning may be lost if too many meetings are eliminated.  

In sum, the goal is admirable.  We all can identify many unproductive meetings we have attended.  However, we need to remember that most things we do require input, support, and collaboration with others.  We do few things alone in organizations.  Meetings serve as important coordination mechanisms in many cases. 

The Dangers of a "Tight" Meeting Agenda

Source: Brooks Group

Everyone seems to complain about the number of meetings crowding managers' daily schedules.  Moreover, plenty of people express frustration at the inefficiency of many of these meetings.  Conventional wisdom suggests a number of prescriptions for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of meetings.  For instance, many experts call for clearly defined meeting agendas that are communicated clearly to all participants.  However, managers need to be aware of the crucial risks associated with keeping meeting agendas too "tight" - i.e., regimented and structured.   

Yes, managers need to keep their teams on track.  Frequent diversions from the meeting agenda can be frustrating for everyone involved.  However, managers are not always aware of key issues and concerns in advance of a meeting.  A crowded, overly regimented agenda leaves no room for participants to surface problems, risks, or concerns.   Therefore, managers need to make room in each meeting for an opportunity for some unplanned discussion of issues about which leaders may not be aware.  

Leading a High-Energy, Productive Meeting

Source: Tameday

Elizabeth Doty has written a good article for Strategy+Business titled, "How to Boost People's Energy and Productivity During Meetings."  Doty offers several useful strategies. 

1.  Offer a clear, compelling prompt.  Most often, this prompt should come in the form of a question that both focuses the discussion and stretches people's thinking.

2. Don't start with a blank slate. Give people some fuel to energize their thinking. Doty writes, "You might provide a messy first draft or a sketch for them to react to, or tell the story of a recent incident that relates to the project goal. One of my colleagues likes to start work sessions with a live phone interview with a customer, employee, or stakeholder."   I love the interview technique.  What a great way to ground the discussion in the actual challenges faced by key constituents and to insure that executives are not too isolated from what's really happening on the front lines.  

3.  Consider shifting formats.   We have all become pretty adept at the breakout group format in Zoom these days.  Don't let that notion go away when you return to in-person meetings.  Provide some time for small subgroup discussions amidst a larger team meeting.  For instance, David Garvin and I wrote in the past about the power of what scholars call the dialectical inquiry method for making decisions.  In that technique, you break a team into multiple subgroups and ask them to generate contrasting alternatives. Then, the subgroups come together to debate these options, critique each other's ideas, and then revise their proposals.  

4.  Give the team some templates to help structure their thinking.   These templates might include an affinity map, journey map, cause-effect diagram, or business model canvas.  These structures can help channel the conversation and provide a tangible product at the end of the meeting that can be shared with others and that captures everyone's thinking.  

Preparing for a Great Meeting: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek

Source:  Wikimedia

The Observer Effect has published a fascinating interview with Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.    Ek has a clear and concise take on how to tackle important issues, define his role in the decision-making process, and design effective group meetings.  Here's an excerpt on how he thinks about defining his own role in the decision process in advance of discussions with his team members:

I typically tackle one topic a day which takes a lot of my time. That's my big thing for the day. Before we go into a live team discussion on that particular topic, I invest time to prepare beforehand – reading and talking to members of the team who are either part of the decision-making process or who have insights and context. I sometimes even get external perspectives.

I also think about what my role is at that meeting. Sometimes I'm the approver. Other times, I'm supposed to come with a thoughtful perspective on whether an initiative makes sense or not.   I’ve found that creating this clarity of role for myself is critical. It’s something I challenge my direct reports to think about as they engage with their own teams. I remind them that all meetings are not the same. Even when we are meeting to discuss really, really complicated topics I always ask myself: “What am I going to do in this meeting? What does my involvement really need to be?”

The truth is: it's entirely contextual. I find it crucial to be upfront about everyone’s role in different meetings, I think this is super, super important. Often that's my number one thing: to make sure I know what role I'm playing.

Then, Daniel Ek explains the critical attributes of a highly effective team meeting.   Here's another excerpt from the interview:

A great meeting has three key elements: the desired outcome of the meeting is clear ahead of time; the various options are clear, ideally ahead of time; and the roles of the participants are clear at the time.

I often find that meetings lack one of those elements. Sometimes they lack all those, which is when you have to say, “This is a horrible meeting, let's end it and regroup so it can be more effective for everyone.”

To clarify outcomes, options, and roles ahead of time, we sometimes rely upon a preread. Prereads are a great way to share context so that attendees can quickly get into the meat of the issue and not waste time getting everyone up to speed.

I've always believed that the best leaders think carefully, in advance, about how to structure the decision-making process.  Moreover, they are thoughtful about their own role in that process. Ek does a nice job of articulating the value of this approach from the perspective of a leader running a large, fast-growing organization.  

Squandering Time: How Many Hours to Support One Executive Team Meeting?

Source:  Pixabay

Michael Mankins, a partner in Bain & Company’s San Francisco office, published a short blog post for Harvard Business Review several years ago.  Bob Sutton reminded us about the research this week on Twitter.  In the post, Mankins provided highlights from an in-depth study of meetings and time management at one large organization.  Here's what Mankins and his team found:

How much time does your organization squander? My colleagues and I gathered data about time use at one large company and found that people there spent 300,000 hours a year just supporting the weekly executive committee meeting.  

You read that correctly... 300,000 person-hours per year supporting one top management team meeting.   Where does the time go?   Hundreds of other meetings take place to prepare executives for this one senior meeting which they must attend weekly. Mankins writes, "Research shows that 15% of an organization’s collective time is spent in meetings—a percentage that has increased every year since 2008. No amount of money can buy back that time. It must be treated more preciously."

How can managers change their behavior in light of this research?  Here are five key questions one can ask as you call for and prepare for meetings:

1.  What is the purpose of the meeting?  What are we trying to achieve?  

2.  Who should attend this meeting?  Who does NOT need to be there?

3.  How should we structure the meeting?  How will that structure help us achieve the outcomes we desire?

4.  What pre-work should participants do, and what materials should we distribute in advance, so that we use our meeting time efficiently?  

5.  How do I plan to follow up so as to insure that we do what we say we are going to do after the meeting?  What will I do if we don't achieve the results we expect as a result of decisions taken during the meeting?

How NOT to start your next meeting

Becoming a Terrific Facilitator: All About Preparation!

I recently read a blog post by Hannah Feldberg-Dubin of the Design Gym.   She describes the capabilities required to be a highly effective facilitator.   Several of her key points pertain to preparation for an important meeting or workshop.   Let's focus on that important preparation phase f or a moment.  Drawing from her article, here are a few lessons that you might apply the next time you have to lead a team meeting: 

1.  Physical space & materials:  What type of physical space do you require?  What materials should you have available for the participants?  Remember that environment shapes behavior.   How you design the environment will have a significant impact on the way people interact during your meeting or workshop.  If you want collaboration, think about how to promote that.  If you want to stimulate creativity, consider the types of materials that might be fuel for innovative thought.  

2.  Purpose & desired outcomes:  What is the intent of this meeting or workshop?   What are the desired outcomes?  Make sure that everyone understands the intent and the desired end state.  

3.  Shared norms and ground rules:  How will the group members interact with one another?  What rules of engagement do you want to establish and enforce during the meeting?  I suggest creating a poster for the wall that defines these norms and ground rules.  

4.  Pre-work:  Often, we skip the pre-work because we are not sure that members will actually complete it.  However, we can get much more accomplished if people come to a meeting or workshop already having done some reading, conducted some analysis, or reviewed certain data.  Keep the pre-work manageable, but consider assigning some work to be done before you gather together.  

5.  Instructions:  If you have certain activities planned, be sure you are prepared to offer clear and concise instructions.  Run the instructions by a colleague before the meeting, and ask for feedback.  Make sure that these instructions make sense to your colleague, and that he or she interprets them as you intended.  

6.  Technology:  What technology will enable an effective conversation?  Don't overdo the slides.  Focus on creating a good dialogue, and use technology to stimulate that healthy give-and-take.   Don't put excessive technological demands on the participants, particularly if they are not particularly tech-savvy.  Test the technology beforehand.  Nothing derails a meeting more than having to fiddle with a computer that isn't working properly, or waiting for A/V help to arrive.  

7.  Food!  Ok, nothing derails a good workshop like bad food and drink, or a lack of food and drink.  Maintaining energy in the room is key to good facilitation, and a bit of fuel can be very helpful.   

Should You Take a Vote at the Start of Meetings?

David Marquet has written an interesting article for Forbes this week regarding decision-making processes. He begins with a statement of the problem that many organizations must address: "It's not that the courage to speak up is too low, it's that the barriers to speaking up are too high."  However, I have some concerns about the solution that he proposes. He argues the following:

Vote first, vote often. Voting first results in maximum diversity of opinion. It’s difficult to disagree with the group, and maybe more difficult to disagree with the leader. The purpose of voting first is to uncover those who feel strongly one way or the other about something. If you want to poll again after discussion you can.

Why might voting at the outset of meetings not make sense?  Consider what happens when an initial vote takes place, even if you allow people to indicate that they are not sure how they feel about an issue.  Some people will take a hard stance on an issue even before hearing from other parties who may have quite different views.   We might find people shifting into advocacy mode before the problem has even been well-defined by the group.   The vote may confine people's thinking to the options presented, rather than encouraging the generation of new alternatives.  Opportunities to reframe the issue may become more elusive, since we have voted already on the problem as defined by the leader at the outset of meeting.  What happens next?  Will the vote exacerbate the confirmation bias?  Will people examine data selectively, and in so doing actually find themselves polarizing further as the discussion takes place?  Moreover, one has to be concerned if the meeting begins with a lopsided vote.  Would the majority begin to pressure the "holdout(s)" to abandon their opposition and "get on board" with the team?   

In my mind, a meeting has to start with some exploration of the issues at hand, before we move into advocacy regarding particular solutions.  We want to encourage people to share information, particularly data that others may not be aware of prior to the meeting.  Leaders should stimulate a discussion about different ways to frame the problem, and the team should have a vibrant dialogue about alternaive solutions.  We want people to try to understand others' thinking first, before shifting into advocacy mode.   Voting early may actually diminish these important behaviors that lead to more effective decisions.  

How to Listen to an Employee's Pitch

Adam Bryant interviewed Lisa Gersh recently for his New York Times Corner Office column.   Gersh explains an early leadership lesson she learned.  In short, she's talking about how the "yes, and" principle from improv comedy can be used to enhance the quality of team meetings.  

A mentor, Geraldine Laybourne, gave me a great lesson when I had my first child. She said the best way to control the “terrible 2s” and make your kids happy is to learn how to say “yes.” It doesn’t mean giving them everything they want; it means directing them to something else. The same thing is true in business. It’s about learning to say yes. People pitch ideas all the time, and I find that others in the room can often want to say no and talk about why it’s not a good idea. A bunch of really smart people can kill any idea. You can always find out what’s wrong with an idea, but you can’t necessarily find out what’s good with the idea. And so the first thing she said to me when we were starting Oxygen Media is to learn how to say yes. Listen to people’s ideas almost like an improv session, and play with the ideas. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to do the idea. It just means you’re going to listen to the idea and work on the idea.

What People Really Mean at Meetings!

How To Run a Meeting Effectively

A Conference Call in Real Life

What Do You Do During the First Five Minutes of Any Meeting?

In a terrific article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, James Lang writes about how faculty members should use the first five minutes of class more effectively.   Lang points out that many faculty members engage in mundane logistical or administrative tasks during the opening moments of class (taking attendance, reminding students of items on the syllabus, talking about deadlines for future assignments).  He recommends a different approach.    Lang writes:

The opening five minutes offer us a rich opportunity to capture the attention of students and prepare them for learning. They walk into our classes trailing all of the distractions of their complex lives — the many wonders of their smartphones, the arguments with roommates, the question of what to have for lunch. Their bodies may be stuck in a room with us for the required time period, but their minds may be somewhere else entirely.  It seems clear, then, that we should start class with a deliberate effort to bring students’ focus to the subject at hand. Unfortunately, based on my many observations of faculty members in action, the first five minutes of a college class often get frittered away with logistical tasks (taking attendance or setting up our technology), gathering our thoughts as we discuss homework or upcoming tests, or writing on the board.

Lang has some great suggestions, starting with his first and most important one:  Open with a question or two.  In so doing, you articulate the purpose of that particular class.   Perhaps you intrigue them a bit and/or capture their attention.  You also invite their active participation.  

The same advice holds true for meetings at work.   As the leader of a team, consider carefully how you start your meetings.  Do you launch into mundane administrative talk, or do you articulate a clear and compelling question?   In so doing, are you articulating the purpose of the meeting quite clearly? Perhaps most importantly, by starting with a question, you are inviting your team members' comments, insights, and questions.  You are drawing them into the conversation and giving them license to share their ideas.  

The Personal Invitation

You would like people to attend your meeting, conference, reception, or other event.  You prepare a written invitation, and you distribute in electronic form and perhaps in hard copy as well.  You don't get the type of response you would like.  Why not?  Here are three reasons:

1.  The invite was not personal.  Consider reaching out personally to some key people and ask them to invite others personally.  That direct touch still matters, even in this electronic age. 

2.  You didn't answer the question: What's in it for me?  You have to demonstrate or explain why there's value for them in attending. 

3.  You failed to focus enough on who else will be there.  People want to know if key peers will attend as well.  They want to be able to connect, communicate, and learn from them.  Yes, we all still act like high school students.  We want to know who else is going before we join the party. 

Preparing and Rehearsing for a Meeting with Your Boss

Patti Johnson has written a good Fast Company column titled, "8 Ways to Get the Most out of a Meeting with Your Boss."   Johnson explores how you can prepare effectively for these meetings, as well as how to conduct yourself to get the most out of these interactions.   Here's an excerpt:

Think less about your slides and more about the discussion
I once watched a colleague of mine endlessly tinker with the wording on his PowerPoint slides right up to the moment before his presentation. Of course you need solid content to grab your audience’s attention, but when you’re speaking to senior leaders, you need much more than a striking PowerPoint show. Instead, think of it as a tool for spurring the right conversation.  What decisions will be made during the meeting, and what information will be needed to make them? Pin down those objectives first, then plan your presentation accordingly. And stick to what's essential. Too many slides can signal that you plan to do all the talking or even that you can’t manage your time effectively. 

Focus on your audience, not yourself 

Anticipate the issues your audience cares about most. Put yourself in their shoes, and make a list of potential questions from your listeners' perspective. What do they want to know? Do they want in-depth details or just the headlines? How much time do they want to spend listening to you? If you base your presentation around your audience’s needs and interests, you can align your time and content to fit them.

I think the best part of this advice is that it encourages employees to anticipate how the meeting will unfold.  Putting yourself in the other person's shoes is so crucial.  I would even encourage employees to rehearse how they might respond to certain questions.  You also need to think about timing.  You won't have time to cover everything that you would like to discuss.  That's almost always the case.  So, be clear in advance about what your priorities are.  What must you absolutely cover in the meeting, and what can you defer? 

Defending Meetings: They are not all bad after all!

Creativity expert David Burkus has a published a great blog post in which he defends the dreaded meeting.  He argues that meetings can actually make us more creative.  Really?  Well, he's talking about a particular type of meeting.  He cites some interesting research to make his point.  Here's an excerpt:

Psychologist Kevin Dunbar studied the workings of four prominent microbiology laboratories for insights into the creative work of experimentation. The findings from these field studies defied the conventional image of the lone scientist staring into a microscope to reveal a great discovery. Instead, Dunbar found that the most creative insights and greatest discoveries actually occurred during regularly scheduled lab meetings, where individual researchers revealed their latest findings and shared their most difficult setbacks. The creative discoveries produced by these labs occurred only after these individuals conspired together to find a solution or draw connections between previously unconnected insights.

 What's the key insight here?  At these meetings, people share their ideas, describe the work that they are doing, and they ask others to help them address the obstacles that they have encountered.  People have an opportunity to see the links between different streams of work, and they can provide each other valuable assistance.  To make this type of meeting helpful, you have to be willing to share your work process, not just your outputs.  You have to admit what you do not know, and you have to be willing to ask for help.  In other words, you have to have a very safe climate in which all attendees are comfortable sharing these types of issues with others, and in which they are willing to make themselves a bit vulnerable.  Unfortunately, that's often not the case in many meetings.