Get Off Email and End Meetings on Time

Thursday, 3/22/18

9:45-11am

Sheraton Grand Chicago

Room: Michigan A

Category: Leadership & Management

Do you received too many emails from your colleagues? Want to run more efficient meetings? This session will present two tools (and lots of best practices) that solve the time crunch in modern workplaces. 1) Slack, a messaging app for teams that helps track conversations. 2) Level 10, a meeting format designed to create a consistent rhythm focused on the vision.

Speaker:

Charlie Cichetti, WELL AP, WELL Faculty

LEED AP BD+C, ID+C, O+M, ND, Homes

CEO of Green Building Education Services (GBES.com)

CEO + Co-Founder of Sustainable Investment Group (SIGearth.com)

The Email Stats

121 (average emails received per day)

40 (average emails sent per day)

42% (% of Americans that check their email in the bathroom)

28% (of your week is spent on reading/send email, or about 13 hours/week)

The Meeting Stats

62 (average # of meetings an employee attends each month)

31 (number of unproductive hours spent in meetings each month)

Half (less than half of emails deserve attention; most can be processed in bulk)

64 seconds (that’s how long it takes to recover from an email interruption)

Email overload increases stress levels.

205 Billion (that’s how many emails were sent/received each day in 2015)

Key takeaway: With more email users, accounts per user, and overall sends, email overload will only continue to grow in the coming years.

Slack to cut down on inter-office email.

www.slack.com

Email Best Practices

If you must send an email:

-Include a clear, direct subject line.

• -Think twice before hitting “reply all”
• -Include a signature block
• -Proofread every message
• -Keep tabs on your tone

Email Productivity (tips sourced from Forbes.com)

Create Email-Free Zones (on average, we check emails 15x/day)

At all other times, turn off your email notifications, even on your phone. If you need to, add to your signature that you will be available by phone, in case people desperately need to reach you. A simple “I’m trying to email less, and work more. Call me if you need me” will work well.

Read Them Once

A lot of people make the mistake of reading an email and not replying instantly. If you read it once; and then come back to reply – you end up reading the email again. Over the course of a week, this ends up being a lot of time wasted re-reading emails. Read it once. Reply on the spot. And move on.

Stop the BCC Madness

CC and BBC wastes a lot of time: 144 out of the 200 emails an office worker receives each day are irrelevant to them. Copying in copious colleagues is often a precautionary measure for bosses to check in on their juniors, and for people to feel show that they are "busy working." Sit with either your superiors or subordinates and create a new system for checking in with each other. This could be a weekly summary or involve just copying superiors in on the last email on a chain. However, try to make it a more meaningful interaction, like a walking meeting, or a weekly breakfast. If you can heighten trust between your team, email naturally will reduce.

Innovator’s Challenge:

Aim to halve the amount of time you spend on email. Create a reduction plan based on the suggestions above and pilot it for a week. Note down how you feel before and after, especially what felt like it made you more productive. Next, consider what it will take to make this pilot become your new reality and how you might roll it out to your team.

Meeting Best Practices (tips sourced from bdc.ca and eosworldwide.com)

• Reduce the number of meetings to start with.
• Send Agenda ahead of time (or better yet, have an editable Google Doc Agenda)
• Make sure everyone can answer: What is the purpose of the meeting?
• Have a time keeper. Start and End on Time.
• Utilize a “Parking Lot” list for anything off topic or ideas for later.
• Create a company culture where meetings are valued and respected. If you allow people to be consistently late or arrive unprepared, you’re sending out a message that your meetings are unimportant. Close the door once the meeting begins and don’t start over for latecomers.
• Send out an Agenda in advance so that participants can be fully prepared. Be sure it’s action-oriented. If participants aren’t essential to achieving a goal, they shouldn’t be there. You can allot specific items for each topic to keep the meeting on track and request that somebody takes notes.
• Keep the atmosphere positive. Don’t criticize colleagues at a meeting.
• Close with a plan of action. Ensure that everyone leaves knowing what is expected of them.
• Rate your meeting (make sure everyone knows what a “10” meeting looks like to shoot for).

Level 10 Meeting (sourced from eosworldwide.com and mybusinessonpurpose.com)

Good News (1 good thing about business and 1 good thing about personal since last meeting) [5 mins]

Core Values, Mission, and Vision [3 mins]

Establish 5-15 KPI #’s and place on the scorecard. If a number is off, "drop it down" to IDS

KPI Scorecard ([5 mins]

Customer/Team Member Headlines [5 mins]

Rock Review (discuss individual + company rocks – on track or off track) [5-10 mins]

To-Do List [5 mins]

IDS [30+ mins]

Rate Meeting [2 mins]

5 Question True/False Quiz

• There are no alternatives to email for daily communication with your coworkers.
• Slack is not accessible from your mobile phone.
• Rating your meeting is an effective feedback tool.
• The company Vision, Mission, and core Values are read at the beginning of each Level 10 meeting.
• IDS is an acronym for Innovate, Design, Standardize.