Knowledge workers spend approximately one business day every week, or 23% of their time, in a meeting. The weight of the working day of Evita that employees have uninterrupted time to concentrate, which makes the issue extend its hours far beyond the traditional 9 to 5.
It is tempting that companies adopt the attractiveness of “without meetings”, with the hope that extra time will lead to a more focused job. But the elimination of work at meetings?
Grace Williams, vice president of customer relations of the public relations agency Panblast, convinced his leadership team to cancel all meetings for a week. With about 20 meetings filling more than half of its schedule, Grace saw a “week of no meetings” as an opportunity to perform significant work while relieving zoom fatigue.
The result? While some employees lost social interactions and fought to understand the workload, 92% of employees said they would like to repeat the experiment again later that year.
So what is the correct movement for companies? “They should dedicate one day every week to deep work, or try a full week with meetings and in an era of improved collaboration and management of the Emarter calendar, is it the true opportunity in small refinements instead of radical changes?
Here, the representatives of companies of all sizes share how they are rethinking the culture of the meeting.
Consider a deep work day
I brought a “Friday without meeting” policy with me when I joined Tormach two years ago, the rest of the company adopted it later. The result? Greater productivity, without communication gaps and a remarkable change in morals. People use Fridays to catch up with emails, finish administration and tie loose ends, which cleanses mental disorder before the weekend. It also creates a natural incentive to finish the collaboration work for Thursday, so the deadlines tend to be beaten before.
The idea came from my experience in larger companies, where Friday’s meetings were often canceled last minute by leadership, discarding their day and mentality. He felt inefficient and frustrating, so I decided to turn that script and eliminate the expectation of meetings completely.
We stay connected through Microsoft equipment, and on Friday it has been organically became a day when people share weekly victories in our channels, maintaining communication flowing while honoring deep working time.
Heather Curtis, Sales and Marketing Director, Tormach
Give employees tools to get out of meetings
There are no meeting policies and no meeting week should be a thing of the past thanks to AI.
Instead of a focus of all or nothing that limits how people want to work, instead, give them the tools to get out of the meetings they miss, while ensuring the information they need. Everything is infinitely more possible today.
When the teams implement a co -pilot of AI meetings, people, naturally, attend Feer meetings of 20% almost immediately, while they still get access to the content through shared meetings reports and a connected business search. No one has to review the minutes of the meetings for longer; Simply request your knowledge base for the information you need and advance in your fastest day.
David Shim, co -founder and CEO, read ai
Anchor the week with written public commitments
Growth requires speed, and meetings were slowing down. Therefore, we implement a complete policy without a meeting for five consecutive business days. There are no regular standups, check-ins or even “fast” calls. We structure it as a sprint, with each participant committing themselves to a key project for the week and sharing it in a loose thread on Monday morning.
The duration of the departure that week was doubled compared to a typical week, measured by the number of campaigns released and the characteristics delivered. He felt electric. However, for Friday, we realized that relationships had suffered slightly; Informal collaboration and creative riffing were almost non -existent without chats in real time.
To guarantee long -term success, anchor the week with written public commitments. In Beehiiv, we require a launching post on Monday and a Friday summary. Without that, the lack of meetings simply makes people invisible, and the invisibility kills the fastest impulse than the meetings could.
Edward White, Chief of Growth, Beehiiv
Get acceptance from top to bottom
Shift has implemented deep work on Wednesday for more than a year for the entire company. The key to a successful policy without a meeting is to first achieve a true purchase from top to bottom. It is at the level of leadership where the schedules are occupied and the meetings invitations are scheduled only to find the time in which no one has reserved meetings.
The members of the individual team also seek the leadership of the company to evaluate how committed they should be with the policies or changes of the new company in their workflow. The long -term success of the non -meeting policy of a company depends on those at the top that establishes the correct tone and leads with the example.
Sabrina Banadyga, Vice President of Marketing, shift
Be intentional about meetings
Reflective meeting habits are not about cutting things completely, but it is about being intentional. I am ruthless for attending meetings with a clear agenda and purpose. If something can be shared as continuous communication, instead of a separate meeting, it should be. If I can empower some to advance without me, simply better.
My advice? Lead with the example. Defend your calendar, prioritize deep work and normalize the idea that you do not bee at each meeting can be a sign of a strong, empowered and reliable team, not one disconnected.
Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo (JC), president and director of Operations of Travelperk