Why You Need to Axe All Mandatory Meetings

The Law of Two Feet: Make participation optional

The Law of Two Feet: Make participation optional

Image by Pany/ Licensed via AdobeStock

Bad meetings make bad companies. Especially mandatory ones. Instead of participating, people can’t wait for that painful moment to end.

What if we make it okay for people to opt-out?

Meetings drive affiliation and shape the organizational culture. It’s how effective teams get things done.

“Meeting’s over, let’s get back to work”

Boring and unproductive meetings frustrate everyone. It makes managers force their people to participate.

But coercion creates the opposite effect. It encourages withdrawal rather than participation. Everyone in the team will play along. And no one will give their best.

People don’t resist meetings — they resist being forced to attend boring, useless ones.

The remedy is invitation. Let people choose if they want to join (or not).

Increase Engagement: Make Participation Optional

I can’t stress this enough.

The more we want to impose things on people, the less they will care. When change…