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Leadership

More Meetings, More Problems: How to Make Your Work Meetings Work for You

Jan 8, 2025

By Abby Murphy, Senior Project Manager, Reference Medicine

When I first started at Reference Medicine, we had meetings upon meetings every day of the week: check-ins, follow-ups, kick-offs… As soon as we ended one meeting, we were rolling into the next one. And as I’m sure we’ve all experienced, having these infinite meetings leaves little (if any) time to do the actual work discussed in them! Luckily, I’m happy to say we’re no longer drowning in meetings at Reference Medicine, and all it took was a few small but thoughtful changes to get there.

When we looked at our calendars and saw projects were stalling despite all the time we seemed to be spending talking about them, we looked to - of all things - yoga for inspiration. You don’t just roll into a yoga session and start doing headstands - you start with a slow warm-up, get into more rigorous exercises, and then wind down. 

Eureka! 💡 Let’s put this vinyasa to work in our lab! 

We found our flow by starting our week with a tactical Scrum, focusing on getting the hard work done midweek, and ending the week with retrospective and strategic discussions. After all, there’s no need to get bogged down in all the things that could’ve gone better before the week has even started.

Read on to learn more about how this windup and winddown corresponds to our workplace - and how it could help yours.

Start the week strong with planning

We begin the week with any and all planning on Monday - doing this allows the team to align on what our goals are for the week, ensure our prioritized tasks align to those goals, and determine whether we are trying to take on more than we have the capacity for - if so, we adjust as needed. Everyone gets their marching orders and gets to work. 

We also keep these meetings as short as possible - we used to have hour-long Scrums, and now I have no idea what we filled that time with. Our Scrums are 15-20 minutes long and we are able to get even more accomplished because of it. Sometimes, more retrospective or strategic ideas inevitably come up, but when it’s clear they merit a longer discussion, we flag those points for our Thursday meetings’ agendas instead (more about this below).

Leave time midweek for deep work and external meetings

As the week ramps up, we try to avoid scheduling internal meetings Tuesday and Wednesday. Leaving this time open allows our team the time to buckle down and get the week’s work done. 

One exception is our “midweek checkpoint”  - a recurring meeting on Wednesday to ensure there are no blockers keeping important and/or timely tasks from being accomplished. If there is a blocker that hasn’t been escalated yet, uncovering it on Wednesday gives us time to resolve the issue before the end of the week. 

For instance, Inga Rose, our CEO, and I have a dedicated midweek checkpoint every Wednesday to review in-flight tasks and upcoming deadlines to ensure nothing gets dropped. And because this time is already carved out each week, it’s easy to plan for it and still get work done. It’s also a great time to identify when we need to add discussion items to one of our team-wide Thursday strategy sessions.

Keeping these internal meetings to a minimum also allows our team members to set aside time for meetings with external parties, like customers or vendors, when it’s necessary.  

Reflect and strategize as the week winds down

Thursdays are the days we use to review work accomplished and discuss what lies ahead. These meetings might include any sort of retrospectives, monthly meetings to review the business as a whole, and quarterly planning and strategy discussions. Holding these meetings on Thursday gives everyone on our team the mental space to shift to a more strategic mindset after all the tactical tasks are done for the week. These meetings can sometimes go over on time with our team members getting into a great discussion or brainstorming flow, so by relegating it to the end of the week, we can take the dedicated time to talk through ideas without blocking tactical tasks from getting done.

In the past, we sometimes tried talking through strategy on Monday or Tuesday, but these are the days when our lab processes specimens and fulfills orders. As such, the lab staff couldn’t fully engage in the discussions because they were worrying in the back of their minds if they would be late on a processing step or miss the FedEx pickup. Moving these meetings to Thursdays worked best for us in terms of our lab’s workflow and giving all employees the chance to focus on their tactical work Monday through Wednesday and open their minds to strategic discussions when the bulk of that work has been completed. 

Working with our lab in particular has shown me that it’s not just about the meetings on the calendar to work around when scheduling - you have to keep in mind general workflows as well (specimen processing and order fulfillment in our case) to ensure everyone can be fully present and engaged in what you need to discuss. Timing a meeting right can help make it more productive for everyone involved.

Wrap up the week with no meetings Fridays

The most sacred of all our Reference Medicine meeting rules is no meetings on Fridays. This leaves the entire day open to tie up any loose ends from the week and set yourself up for success the following Monday. This meeting-free day is one of my favorite things about working here - it makes the end of the week exciting, not just because the weekend is coming soon, but also because I can close out so many lingering tasks. Who doesn’t love the thrill of crossing items off on a to-do list?

Every company is structured differently, and one of the major perks of working at a startup is the flexibility to implement culture changes like determining when and how meetings are scheduled. But no matter the size of your team, small changes from reducing meeting frequencies to reducing meeting lengths to even choosing certain days for certain types of meetings can give everyone more time back than they realize. It’s not just the time itself, but the brain power saved on not context-switching from meeting to meeting. If nothing else, try giving yourself a day without meetings - Friday or another day of the week that fits best with your team’s workflow. You’ll likely be shocked at how much more you can get done when you give yourself the time back.

Namaste!

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For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
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