Experts explain 'How to make meetings less terrible'

The title of this blog post is taken from a Freakonomics Radio podcast by Steven J. Dubner, and I recommend listening to all 42 minutes of it. But if you can't find the time, here are some of the key points.

How terrible are meetings?
Steven Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist, says research has shown that around 70 percent of senior managers view meetings as unproductive. And these are typically the people calling the meetings.

The higher up the chain of command they go, executives attend more meetings. Rogelberg estimates most professionals in the U.S. attend 15 meetings a week."But what we know from the research is that left to just the standard protocols of people talking, that a decision better than what would have just been produced by the best individual in the room only occurs 20 percent of the time." He has written a book on the subject, The Surprising Science of Meetings.

Why are meetings so terrible?

Most meetings are done on a schedule, out of habit, and have no purpose, says Helen Schwartzman, an anthropologist at Northwestern University who wrote the book The Meeting: Gatherings in Organizations and Communities. "I would say that meetings are the organization. Which is to say that instead of having the meeting as a place to solve problems, we need to have problems and crises and decisions to produce meetings." If there are no problems to be solved, there is no reason to meet.

People are more important than the product

Reflections on several decades of managing news publications

A student in a media management course had to interview a media professional for his final research project. I agreed to be his subject, and in the course of an hour, he got me to talk about my philosophy of management in the digital era.

Reading over the transcript of that interview, I realized how my thinking had changed over the years. The main lesson I learned was to put people first. Growing up in the old newspaper model of the news factory, I developed skill in the processes of production, meeting deadlines, getting the product out the door. That was the priority: produce a sufficent quantity of content at a level of professional quality consistent with the limitations of time, money, and space (the news pages) available.

The paradox

Over time, I discovered an interesting paradox: Putting people first generates more profit. If you think first about developing your people and helping them achieve their personal and professional goals, the profit will follow. When you create an organization where people feel they are growing and learning and participating in a mission bigger than themselves, they become tremendously creative and productive.

Women are making their mark in digital news startups

Women are taking a leadership role in the development of digital journalism in Latin America, according to a new study of 100 startups.

The study, Inflection Point, by SembraMedia in partnership with Omidyar Network, offers many clues to achieving the elusive goal of sustainability for new digital media.

Click to enlarge.

One clue is that women have the skills and experience to lead the way: 62% of the 100 organizations in the study had at least one woman founder, and women represented 38% of the total founders of all the media (p. 41 in the PDF version).

Extensive interviews with the founders -- 25 each from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico -- produced data that clarified the elements of successful business models and showed the best places to invest resources and training.

"This finding suggests that women are taking advantage of the low barriers to entry in digital media startups to go around the glass ceilings of traditional media and build their own publishing companies," wrote the directors of the study, Janine Warner and Mijal Iastebner, who are also co-founders of SembraMedia. (Disclosure: I worked as an editor of the study.)

Versión en español

People problems in a small media organization, Part 2

Versión en español aquí.

In People Problems Part 1, we talked about two common kinds of complaints that you as a manager might hear.

• "I don't think Karl is showing enough commitment to his work"
• "The technical staff is being rude to our salespeople"

Then we walked you through the basic steps you as a manager could use to help your colleague solve the problems. The goal in this process is to develop your colleague's problem-solving skills.

If you focus on developing your people, your organization will develop far more rapidly than if you focus on just the numbers.

People problems in a small media organization, Part 1

Versión en español.

If you are leading a team in a small media organization, you need to get the best out of your people. Everyone has to be a contributor. 

This is not just a selfish thing. You get the best out of people by helping them develop their own talents, overcome obstacles and reach their own professional goals. 

Ask questions, don't give solutions

If a member of your team comes to you with a problem -- for example, "I don't think Karl is showing enough commitment to his work" or "the technical staff is being rude to our salespeople" -- you will not help the person by providing a solution. 

• First, the solution you propose might work for you but not for your colleague. You have different talents and experience. 
• Second, providing a solution denies the person the chance to grow, to develop confidence in problem solving.  

Columbia focuses on coaching journalism execs

Doug Smith
Executive Director
Punch Sulzberger Program

Sixth in a series on entrepreneurial journalism programs at universities and media organizations. 

Columbia Journalism School's Punch Sulzberger Program differs from other programs in this series in several ways. 

Like them, it is entrepreneurial in focusing on innovation and transforming of a media enterprise. But the biggest difference is that it focuses on changing the enterprise rather than on mainly developing skills of an individual.

The participant is supposed to recruit people within and outside the media enterprise (for-profit, non-profit, public) to drive measurable change. The success of any individual participant in the program is based on metrics of the enterprise. 

How a newsroom is like a hit comedy

If you are running a news organization, you have much in common with the coach of a sports team, the director of a ballet or the producer of a hit comedy. The issues are the same. 

• Motivating people.
• Encouraging creativity.
• Developing people's talent to its highest level.
• Maintaining the discipline to meet deadlines and stay within a budget.
• Continually surprising fans.

So I found the book "Bossypants" by Tina Fey rich with lessons for people whose success depends on organizing and harnessing the talent of creative people. She is famous for her work as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live" (Weekend Update, Sarah Palin impression) and as writer, producer and performer on the hit comedy "30 Rock."

IBM chief gives advice that entrepreneurs should heed

Samuel Palmisano, I.B.M.'s outgoing boss, used four questions to guide his company's strategy over the past decade, according to an interview in the New York Times.

All of them are questions that digital media entrepreneurs should be asking themselves every day:

• “Why would someone spend their money with you — so what is unique about you?”
• “Why would somebody work for you?”
• “Why would society allow you to operate in their defined geography — their country?”
• “And why would somebody invest their money with you?”

How to give criticism effectively, in 6 steps

Far too often I had this conversation with a department manager: "I am so frustrated with Robert (or Roberta). He never listens and never improves. I've had it."

"Have you had this conversation with Robert?" I would ask. The answer far too often was no.

Usually the manager was afraid that confronting the employee would make things worse. The employee might create a scene.

Praise has practical benefits in the newsroom

What could be worse than to make extra effort in your work and feel that no one noticed?

The message would be clear: it doesn't really matter to anyone whether I do a good job or not.  No newsroom boss should let that happen. Judicious praise can change that.  

Do you know where you're going? Set some goals

When you are consumed by the daily demands of publishing news on your website, it is difficult to step back and think about where you are going. But you have to do this.

Otherwise your destination is Nowhereville.

There are entire websites and shelves in the bookstore dedicated to the literature on goal-setting. I will give you a story from my personal experience.

Faves from NewsU’s 100 ideas for better journalism

(Aquí se encuentran entradas relacionadas sobre periodismo emprendedor y liderazgo.)

NewsU and its founder, Howard Finberg, celebrated their 100th webinar today with ideas from faculty at the Poynter Institute on making journalism better.

My favorites had to do with leadership and the business side of the news.

From Wendy Wallace, on journalism entrepreneurs

• Play to your strengths. Develop a niche that highlights your special skills, knowledge or talents. 
• Pick a problem that needs solving, that will make your community a better place.
• Find the money to survive by studying how other entrepreneurs did it.
• Form partnerships. You can´t succeed alone. Even competitors might be allies in selected activities. 

From Paul Pohlman, on coaching your colleagues

• Spend a few minutes a day with people to ask them how their work is going. Feedback is crucial and greatly appreciated.
• Be an active listener. Replay to them what you heard.
• For long-term coaching, set aside time each week to see how employees´ projects are going. Schedule it or it won´t happen.
• Help people make plans, review past work, give honest criticism.