Another Meeting That Could Have Been an Email: Redesigning How We Work Together with Rebecca Hinds

Rebecca Hinds, researcher, organizational designer, and author of Your Best Meeting Ever joins the Alan Briggs for a conversation that is long overdue in most, if not all organizations. Alan has threatened to write a book about meetings for years. He no longer has to. Why? Rebecca wrote it. After 15 years studying how humans communicate and coordinate at work, Rebecca brings both the research and the practical frameworks to help leaders stop letting meetings kill their culture — and start designing them as the powerful, expensive tool they actually are. If you've ever sat in a meeting wondering why you're there, or felt the creeping guilt of a calendar so packed with meetings that the real work gets squeezed into the margins, this one is for you. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Why we keep having bad meetings even when we know they're not working — and the visibility bias that drives the cycle What "calendar carnage" is and why it's not just a scheduling problem — it's a fundamental communication problem Meeting Doomsday — the 48-hour calendar cleanse that forces every recurring meeting to earn its spot back Why AI is making meetings worse, not better — and the specific behaviors Rebecca is watching with alarm The danger of sending your AI bot to a meeting instead of showing up yourself — and what it signals to your team Why brainstorming is one of the most overrated meeting types — and what the research says actually produces better ideas The four dimensions of meeting minimalism: length, cadence, attendees, and agenda items Parkinson's Law and why your 30-minute meeting will always take 30 minutes — and how the rule of halves fixes it How to convert every agenda item into a verb and noun combination — and why it changes everything The one meeting most organizations are cutting that they absolutely should not be: the manager one-on-one The question great leaders are asking about AI right now — and why it's not "what can I automate?" What Rebecca hopes meetings look like five years from now — and the mindset shift that gets us there Reflection Questions: If every recurring meeting on your calendar had to earn its spot back tomorrow, which ones would survive? Are you designing your meetings for yourself as the organizer — or for the people in the room? What would you do with your time if your meetings were cut in half — and is that answer worth fighting for? Resources Mentioned: Your Best Meeting Ever — Rebecca Hinds (available wherever books are sold) Working Genius Assessment — Patrick Lencioni and The Table Group (referenced by Alan) Marco Polo — async video tool used by the H2 team H2 Leadership Coaching — h2leadership.com Want more? Visit h2leadership.com for coaching, resources, and tools to help you lead well.