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In the corporate world, a majority of employees regret that meetings are too numerous, too long and insufficiently effective. Despite these criticisms, the problem persists. To find possible solutions to this thorny issue, a team of academics studied 76 companies with over 1,000 employees who had banned meetings for 1 to 5 days a week.

Their findings invite a thorough reconsideration of our work habits: the more the number of meetings diminishes, the more we observe an increase in autonomy, communication, engagement and satisfaction. The tendency toward micro-management decreases, as do stress levels. Productivity improves. Paradoxically, reducing the number of meetings even has a positive effect on collaboration! According to the indicators used by the researchers to assess the level of cooperation, it increased by 55% with the 3 days without meetings formula. The employees found other ways of coordinating and exchanging ideas, better suited to their needs.

Does this mean that meetings should be abolished altogether? Let us not go too far. Beyond 3 weekly days without a meeting, satisfaction, productivity, engagement and cooperation begin to decline. Up to you to find the right balance!

Source: The Surprising Impact of Meeting-Free Days, Benjamin Laker, Vijay Pereira, Pawan Budhwar, Ashish Malik, MIT Sloan Management Review, January 2022.

Trust is an essential ingredient in the performance of any organization. And yet, it remains something of a mystery: why is it so slow to build, so easily eroded? A detour through neuroscience allows a better understanding of the ways in which it is built.

Paul Zak has studied the mechanics of trust over time. He observes that, unlike other species, our brains make us naturally inclined to collaborate with people from outside our immediate circle—but that certain behaviors can hinder this disposition toward trust.

Trust is underpinned by two of our brains’ characteristics. First, a highly developed cortex that enables abstraction, analysis and planning. It allows us to anticipate the actions of others and decide if we can trust them. Next, a capacity for empathy, which helps us share the emotions of others and decipher their motivations based on subtle clues. It emerges from the study that, in the corporate world, the behaviors most destructive of trust are the constant fear of doing the wrong thing (“No matter what I do, I’ll be upbraided”) and domineering behavior.

Findings that should be explored in greater depth to boost trust within your organization.

Source: How Our Brains Decide When to Trust, Paul J. Zak, Harvard Business Review, July 2019.

Did you know? A study conducted on over 250 seminars in 10 countries showed that men were two and a half times more likely to ask questions at the end of a conference than women. A gap that can also be observed in meetings and other professional encounters. According to sociologists, this imbalance reflects persistent structural differences in educational patterns. Boys are encouraged to assert themselves and fill space very early, whereas girls are more invited to display their humility and integrate into the collective—at the cost of sometimes fading into the background. Even though society is evolving, many of us still have to deal with these cultural legacies. Fortunately, some very simple practices can contribute to restoring a balance:

- At the close of a presentation, give the floor for the first reaction to a woman. It has been demonstrated that this opens up other people’s voices, allowing everyone’s point of view to be heard and benefited from.

- In a meeting or seminar, ask everyone to first take a moment for individual reflection—for instance by recording their questions or comments on post-it notes or on a mobile app, then go around the table to invite each person to speak.

Source:  The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart, Doubleday, 2021.

Do you want to promote feedback? Good call: in a study conducted by leadership development consultancy Zenger Folkman, 94% of the 2,700 respondents thought that well-presented corrective feedback improved their performance.

Do you also want to enhance the diversity within your teams? Indeed, that is the direction history is moving in. And the company has everything to gain by fostering a more varied mix of viewpoints.

But beware: combining these two ambitions raises some difficulties. A criticism or an advice expressed by a person from another culture often engenders defensive reactions. We feel less secure with someone whose codes we do not master. For example, the American culture seeks to preserve self-esteem, thus the emphasis placed on positivity. An American will therefore be easily rattled by criticism from a colleague hailing from a more direct culture, such as Germany or France—whereas Asian cultures, based on less explicit communication, will find “American-style” criticism brutal…

One solution consists in implementing structured feedback loops, in pairs—or, ideally, collectively, if the team members know one another well.  This positions feedback as a legitimate element of cooperation, and not as an aggression. What’s more, the reciprocity of exchanges helps everyone to better account for the culture of their interlocutors.

Source:  When Diversity Meets Feedback, Erin Meyer, Harvard Business Review, September-October 2023.

Finding meaning in one's daily missions is a growing expectation on the part of employees and a powerful lever for commitment. How can managers contribute to making their teams' work more meaningful? Research shows that they have every interest in drawing on the reactions of the people directly concerned by this work: customers, colleagues, partners, etc. Allowing employees to see the tangible effects of their work greatly fuels their commitment, more so than explaining to them why it is useful to invest themselves in this or that mission or objective. Indeed, psychologists have documented that this responds to the deep-seated need to feel that our actions have a positive impact on those around us. Here are some practices that will enable you to activate this lever:

- Create opportunities for direct exchanges between the employee and their interlocutors around questions such as: “In what ways does my work have an effect on your activity?”; “In what ways does it help you to achieve your own objectives?”

- Encourage your employees to express their gratitude to one another as soon as an opportunity arises.

- Systematically collect and disseminate testimonials that offer feedback on your employees' work, even those that may seem anecdotal.

Source: The Simple Way to Inspire Your Team, David Burkus, TEDxReno, May 2023.