If you love attending meetings at work, you don't need this episode

Anthony Haynes writes: We've recorded two episodes on the topic of meetings. Why, on a podcast devoted to grey literature?Well, our guest, meetings guru Dr Carrie Goucher, argues that understanding (and improving) meetings benefits a 'systems' approach, in which we consider how they interact with the culture of an organization and its other forms of communication (which will include grey literature forms such as newsletters, email, documents, and online copy).And, more simply, though we don't think of meetings as a form of grey literature, they fulfill (or are supposed to fulfill) comparable functions - notably sharing perspectives and disseminating information.We published our interview with Dr Goucher a year ago. The episode we publish here was actually recorded before that episode, but we decided to hold it back in order to focus our promotion on the interview.Publishing this episode subsequently does, however, present a difficulty! In our interview with her, Dr Goucher argues (as I mentioned above) for a systems approach. As a result, she is rather unenthusiastic about the idea of publishing lists of decontextualized tips.Well, having interviewed her, I have to say that I think Dr Goucher's right! That said, the episode we now publish very definitely falls into the genre of list-of-tips.  Our hope is that, though this genre might not be ideal, such lists need not be valueless. The tips we share here are certainly borne out of years of observing (and even perpetrating) various kinds of practice, good, bad, and challenging-the-will-to-live.CitationCarrie Goucher's thesis was published under her previous surname of Bedingfield. The reference is: Bedingfield, C. (2021). Designing Meetings Systemically: Towards a deeper, more holistic understanding of how meetings work (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.75625.Further listeningIf you enjoyed listening to this thesis, you might enjoy the following:How meetings work: a constructive approach:Managing emails- and our episodes on productivity (in November & December 2022).CreditsSound production: Bart HallmarkMusic: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the showSupport the showAbout the publisherThis episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences. We provide consultancy mentoringediting and writingtrainingand work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.