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What's the point of meetings?

EPISODE · Oct 17, 2023 · 15 MIN

What's the point of meetings?

from Working It

Meetings are an inevitable part of office life – but how many of them are actually useful? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Kaz Nejatian, chief operating officer of ecommerce group Shopify, to find out why the company slashed staff meetings and what the effects of that policy – dubbed “Chaos Monkey” – have been. Isabel also speaks to Dr Joe Allen, director of the Center for Meeting Effectiveness at the University of Utah, to find out how managers can make meetings less painful.Got a workplace dilemma you’d like Isabel and Jonathan to help you with? Submit it here: https://telbee.io/channel/ygf7_gly04xgtckcb0g56a/Want more? Free link:If you invite someone to a meeting, there has to be a purposePresented by Isabel Berwick, produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval, mixed by Simon Panayi. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s head of audio.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What this episode covers

Meetings are an inevitable part of office life – but how many of them are actually useful? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Kaz Nejatian, chief operating officer of ecommerce group Shopify, to find out why the company slashed staff meetings and what the effects of that policy – dubbed “Chaos Monkey” – have been. Isabel also speaks to Dr Joe Allen, director of the Center for Meeting Effectiveness at the University of Utah, to find out how managers can make meetings less painful.Got a workplace dilemma you’d like Isabel and Jonathan to help you with? Submit it here: https://telbee.io/channel/ygf7_gly04xgtckcb0g56a/Want more? Free link:If you invite someone to a meeting, there has to be a purposePresented by Isabel Berwick, produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval, mixed by Simon Panayi. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s head of audio.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This episode is 15 minutes long.

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This episode was published on October 17, 2023.

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Meetings are an inevitable part of office life – but how many of them are actually useful? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Kaz Nejatian, chief operating officer of ecommerce group Shopify, to find out why the company slashed staff meetings and what...

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