Meeting science

Meeting science is an emerging scientific discipline dedicated to the study, analysis, and optimization of professional meetings. Its primary goal is to enhance the effectiveness, productivity, and satisfaction of participants by applying scientific methods and principles.

A business meeting

History

Meetings have always been a central element of management, and interest in their optimization developed in the early 21st century with an increasing number of meetings in professional environments. This interest grew significantly after the global COVID-19 crisis,^[1][2] which led many organizations to adopt hybrid work modes. Previously, various economic sectors had initiated efforts to define and formalize meeting practices.

The principles and practices of meeting science have been adopted beyond the corporate world and integrated into diverse organizations, including local governments, military, associations, and foundations.

Simultaneously, a related field called facilitation emerged. Unlike meeting science, which aims to make operators autonomous in applying best practices, facilitation involves methodological experts who intervene in a targeted manner during events to improve efficiency.

Origins

Lean management

Inspired by Toyota's practices in Japan, lean management introduced the principle of short-interval meetings to manage operations, often associated with visual management.^[3]

Agile approaches

With the publication of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, these approaches spread through the implementation of frameworks like Scrum, which includes specific meetings such as sprint planning and retrospectives, and the daily stand-up.^[4]

Sociocracy and holacracy

Sociocracy and holacracy are governance models introduced in the 1970s and early 2000s, respectively, focused on putting people at the center of performance. They define precise meeting modalities. Sociocracy is based on four principles: decision-making by consent, organization in circles, double-linking between circles, and election without candidates. Holacracy proposes governance meetings and tactical meetings.^[5]

United States

In the United States, meeting science emerged in the 2000s. Steven Rogelberg and Joseph Allen are pioneers, laying the foundations of this scientific discipline. Their academic work is summarized in The Cambridge handbook of meeting science,^[6] which explores various meeting aspects, including the meeting recovery syndrome, a concept that explores to the conditions individuals experience post-meeting.^[7]

Many American authors have published works on meeting science. Rogelberg's The surprising science of meetings offers insights into agenda setting, participant engagement, and decision processes.^[8] Joseph Allen, a student of Rogelberg, continues research at the University of Utah on entitativity, a concept developed by Donald T. Campbell in the 1960s. Allen has also written about remote meetings in the context of hybrid work.^[9] Patrick Lencioni, in Death by meeting (2004), proposes a simple committee model for executive teams, describing necessary rituals.^[10] Elise Keith, in Where the action is, presents a periodic table of meetings with 16 different formats.^[11] Paul Axtell, in Meetings matter (2015), provides a humanistic perspective on meetings.^[12]

The Harvard Business Review is also a resource on meeting science, featuring articles by experts such as Roger Schwartz on effective agenda writing,^[13] Eunice Eun on reducing unnecessary meetings,^[14] Steven Rogelberg on improving meetings,^[15] Sabina Nawaz on creating norms for executive teams,^[16] and Paul Axtell on questions to improve meetings.^[17]

McKinsey has published articles offering insights on meeting organization^[18] and efficiency.^[19]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom Alan Palmer published Talk Lean in 2014, describing an approach developed in France in the 1990s by Philippe de Lapoyade and Alain Garnier, called Discipline Interactifs. This approach emphasizes precisely formulating the goal of an exchange, whether it is a managerial act, a sales interview, or a meeting.^[20] Helen Chapman, in The meeting book (2016), presents concepts and illustrations contributing to meeting success.^[21]

France

In France, Alain Cardon proposed an original approach called delegated processes in the late 1990s to improve recurring meeting practices, particularly for executive committees and hierarchical teams. In 2001, Michel Guillou coined the term réuniologie as "the art of organizing effective meetings."^[22]

In 2017 the École Internationale de Réuniologie, International School of Meeting Science in English, was founded^[23] and registered the trademark réuniologie with the National Institute of Industrial Property^[24] in France. The school assists organizations in improving their meeting practices and combating meeting-itis.^[25] Louis Vareille, the founder, defined the meeting-itis and proposed solutions in his book Meeting-itis, make it stop!.^[26][27]

Meeting-itis is a corporate condition whose main symptom is the disordered and compulsive organization of meetings. This condition, which can be severe, causes corporate loss of productivity and individual disengagement. Its etiology (the study of the overall causes of an illness) shows that the primary cause of this pathogen is a systemic failure by an organization to clarify or respect the responsibility and autonomy of its members – it's about a lack of empowerment. In serious cases, Meeting-itis causes individuals to lose confidence in their ability to make any decision.

— Louis Vareille, Meetingitis? Make It stop!: Meeting science's 10 magic questions and 3 secrets^[28]

In his work, Louis Vareille develops concepts related to meeting science from various authors:

• William Schutz's human element theory: analyzes individual behavior in groups and measures to ensure active contribution.
• Amy Edmondson's psychological safety: influences team dynamics and meeting functioning. Her book The fearless organization (2018) is a key reference.
• Max Ringelmann's social loafing: describes the optimal number of meeting participants.

Other French authors have also contributed to the discipline. Romain David and Didier Noyé, in Réinventez vos réunions, provide a synthetic and operational vision of the levers to activate for meeting efficiency.^[29] Sacha Lopez, David Lemesle, and Marc Bourguignon offer practical perspectives in their Guide de survie aux réunions, drawing on their expertise in facilitation.^[30]

Study areas

The meeting science explores various aspects of meetings:^{[6][7][8][10][11][12][14][17][18]}

1. Planning and structure: designing, defining objectives, structuring the agenda, and preparing meetings.^[13]
2. Group dynamics: analyzing participant interactions, roles, and behaviors.^[16]
3. Technologies and tools: impact of digital tools and communication technologies.^[9]
4. Productivity and efficiency: measuring productivity.^[19]
5. Participant satisfaction: surveys on participant satisfaction and engagement, and evaluating decisions and outcomes. Agile development approaches like return on time invested (ROTI) facilitate these practices.^[15]

Methods

Meeting science uses various methodologies to improve practices:

1. Observation: analyzing behaviors and interactions during meetings.
2. Surveys: collecting data on participant perceptions and satisfaction.^[31]
3. Experiments: controlled conditions to test meeting techniques' effectiveness.
4. Training and transformation: training programs to adjust practices.
5. Governance: analyzing and adjusting committee structures for optimal efficiency.^[32]

Meeting science also integrates techniques to ensure participant engagement in remote and hybrid meetings, using digital tools for meeting design, facilitation, and evaluation. Since 2023, artificial intelligence offers new features for meetings, including agenda design, translation, transcription, and summary writing.^[33]

Contexts

Meeting science can be applied to various contexts,^[34][35] including:

• Team meetings
• Executive and management committees
• Project meetings
• Steering committees
• One-to-one meetings
• All hands meetings