Want to 10X your business? Before you think about sales, before you think about CX, before you think about product, before you think about anything else, do this one thing: fix your time-sucking, soul-draining meetings. At SaaStock 2018, Jessica Weisz shared the biggest pitfalls company leadership makes (many of which are well-intentioned but with disastrous effect!) and ways to make the time you spend with your team supercharge growth.

2. #1 Growth Hack:
Have better meetings
@WeiszJess from @SoapBoxHQ

3. Hi. I’m Jess.
I’m going to share the biggest pitfalls that company leadership makes – many of which are well-intentioned but with
disastrous effect! I’ll also talk about how to make the time you spend with your team supercharge your growth.

4. Half a million
employees
Start-ups to
big corporate
One-on-ones
Team Meetings
What makes me credible to give this advice? I’m COO at SoapBox, where we obsess over making being a manager
easier, natural and fun. Over half a million folks use our software, from leading startups like Intercom and Wayfair to
well-known corporates like Coca-Cola. So I spend my day talking to our customers about meetings: how they do
them, what makes them better.

5. I also calculated that I’ve spent over 10,000 hours in meetings over my career.
So, according to Malcolm Gladwell I’m an expert.

6. How about you?
What about you? What is your experience with meetings?

7. Take out your phone and look at last week. How many meetings did you have? Which ones are worthwhile? Which
ones were just so-so? Which ones left you frustrated?

8. This is what my week looked like – and I’m guessing yours is similar. The average manager spends a full day each
week in recurring one-on-ones and team meetings. Then spend another 20 to 40% in one-off discussions.

9. You are a meeting expert.
You just don’t know it.
So…guess what? You’re a meeting expert too. You’ve racked up 10,000 hours. My job is to help you
uncover things you know but likely haven’t thought about.

10. Plan for
our time
@WeiszJessfrom@SoapBoxHQ
Here’s the plan for our time together.

11. I assume
you’ve read
the blogs.
I know you’ve read the blogs.
You know the ones I’m talking about.

12. I assume
you’ve read
the blogs.
They appear in Inc. Fast Company. Forbes. Entrepreneur. They make you feel horrible about your current situation.
They set you up with some easy-sounding things you can do right away.

13. Kind of like this one from Forbes. This contributor has a simple recommendation to fix meetings:
“keep them as short as possible.” Thanks. Tried that already.

14. No one size fits all
After reading countless tips on how to make good use of time – including some of the content we produce at
SoapBox! – I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no silver bullet for every person and situation.

15. I’m thinking of this presentation as more of a Pinterest board filled with inspiration.

16. Find one thing that inspires you and do just that.
My request of you is to sit back, absorb what I’m sharing and reflect on your own reality.

17. Bad
meetings
@WeiszJessfrom@SoapBoxHQ
So let’s talk about bad meetings.

18. Why do
meetings suck
so bad?
We asked a few hundred people why their meetings suck. I don’t think any of these will surprise you. Do these
resonate? How many of your meetings include these pains?

19. How this impacts your business
People
waste time
in meetings
Nothing
gets done
You don’t
im prove
(even by 1% )
Feels harder
than it should
to grow each
quarter
But it isn’t just the fact that this time can be painful. There is a real impact on your business. Think about the
compounding impact of what happens when everyone in your company wastes time in meetings. Having bad
meetings really impacts your ability to scale.

20. I’m especially concerned about the meetings your managers are leading. Let’s put this another way: how many of you
heard David Skok yesterday? I got great insights on the conversion rates we should be looking at at SoapBox. I’m
excited to go back and meet with the team on the metrics we currently track, and how we can adjust them.

21. How this impacts your business
Let’s talk
about
conversion
rates!
Nothing
gets done
Youdon’t
improve
(evenby 1%)
Feels harder
than it should
to grow each
quarter
But if we’re having bad meetings, this will all be for naught. So here’s what I’m saying: whatever you learn in these two
days will be useless unless you take back some ways to help you and your team do better with your time together.

22. Assign next steps!
So, what can you do about it? Let’s look at those meeting pains. What if there are no decisions or next steps made?
Well, I could tell you to assign next steps!

23. Urge people to arrive on time!
Put away phones!
Have an agenda!
Tell people to pay attention!
Or urge people to arrive on time! Or get them to put their phones in a basket in the middle of the table? Or tell them
to have an agenda! Or assign a person to keep everyone on track!

24. Harrumph.
To those solutions, I say “harrumph.” I’d also be breaking my rule about how there isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to have
better meetings. Don’t get me wrong. Agendas, paying attention, holding people accountable – they are essential. But
they won’t stick. Think about it this way: how many times have you resolved to do these things differently and not
followed through?

25. What can fix
bad meetings?
@WeiszJessfrom@SoapBoxHQ
So what can fix bad meetings?

26. Mindset and manners
Mindset and manners can make a lasting difference. Mindsets are the way you think about things. I want you to think
about meetings differently than we’re trained to. Manners are commonly accepted ways that things are done. I want
you to throw out some of the commonly accepted norms, and do things differently.

27. Mindset
Let’s look at mindset – the way you think about meetings.

28. Let’s stop and reflect on how we typically think as leaders. I’m especially thoughtful about when things get out of
control or don’t go the way we like – like when we realize that there are a bunch of unproductive meetings happening
across our company. We’re the ones in charge. So what do we do?

29. I’ll make rules!
Often, we make rules.

30. Bad idea
I say that’s a bad idea. And to give you a sense of why, let’s look at some of the rules I’ve seen made.

31. Stupid rules
leaders
make
• No meeting Wednesday
• Recurring meetings can only happen with
one other person
• Agenda must be sent out 24 hours in
advance
• Everyone reads a longform document at
the beginning of a meeting to get up to
speed
Here are some rules that I know live at certain companies. What I’ve learned is that: they never stick, no one follows
them completely and the essence of how to use time productively is lost. They also don’t treat employees as the
adults capable of making decisions for each specific situation. Also, not all meetings are the same. Some don’t need
agendas in advance, for example.

32. Be the leader.
Role model the desired
behavior.
So mindset number one I ask of you: be the leader and the role model with the desired behaviour. Don’t enforce it
with a rule.

33. Now let’s go back to the manager mindset. You’re looking at your phone in the morning and seeing that your
afternoon is full of meetings. Often, you’ll be stressed because you don’t know how you’ll get your work done. You
might think, “well, I’ll save myself the energy drain and coast through these.”

34. You’ll end up in scenes like this. Your days are full of meetings, so you find a comfy couch to ride out the time.

35. Meetings are
not a time to
chill
That is what coffee break is for.
Here’s the problem: meetings are not a time to chill. If you need a break, go for a coffee. Take a nap. Listen to some
music in a phone booth.

36. Meetings are work.
A key mindset when walking into a meeting room is that meetings are work. You need to be on. And using the time
productively to get something out of it.

37. Last mindset I want you to think about. Go back to that vision you have of your day full of meetings. Something I think
about – and many of our customers as well – is that I take those meetings with my team because I think it’s what
others need to keep going. They wan to discuss the important projects they are working on. They want to talk about a
process that needs improving. They want to review their deck for an upcoming customer call. I take those meetings –
I sometimes even set them up. All because I want to feel like I am being helpful.

38. This comes from a good place. Think about the books Give and Take and Servant Leadership. These top business
books are based on the idea that managers should give to their employees in order to help them to perform. And I
agree. It’s my job to give all I have so that my team thrives. That is my main job at SoapBox.

39. But I also believe in what the airline emergency card tells me. I have to put on my mask first. So, if I’m completely
drained from too many meetings, or if I’m part of things I don’t need to be involved in, or if I’m giving advice without
getting something off my plate…then I’m in a bad situation by the end of the week.

40. Receive something each
meeting.
The final mindset is that when you go into a meeting, think about what you are receiving. Are you getting better
results because you reviewed last quarter’s KPIs? Are you getting a more committed employee because you had a
deep discussion in a one-on-one? This will likely change how you approach the time.

41. Manners
Onto manners. In the three manners I want to talk about, I will essentially ask you to do the complete opposite of
what you think is right. I want you to forget your manners when it comes to meetings.

42. Let’s look at a party invite. If it’s from someone important to you (like an employee), it would be rude not to show up.
And if you do go, you stay. You can’t just pop in and leave.

43. 59% of employees are less engaged due to
the number of meetings
The most productive meetings have fewer than
8 people
Few people decline meetings
But here’s the pickle: going to too many parties at work is draining, folks.

44. When was the
last time you declined
a meeting?
When was the last time you declined a meeting? David Grady has a cheeky TED Talk about meetings. He calls the
epidemic sweeping corporate offices MAS: mindless acceptance syndrome. It is the action of saying yes to meetings
without any thought. Grady calls for “no mas” – which for those Spanish speakers means “no more!”

45. Decline meetings.
It will feel so good.
I encourage you all to decline meetings. Or decline them until there is an agenda. Or leave as soon as you realize
you’re unnecessary. Maybe even scroll through your phone now and think about what you can take off your plate
next week.

46. Second manner: this one has been drilled into us since we’re young: if you don’t have anything nice to say, you
shouldn’t say anything at all. I say hogwash. Especially in meetings.

47. I disagree… They don’t seem to
agree…
I would
reprioritize…
What I’ve learned is that many people sit in meetings and think dissenting thoughts. They don’t agree – and yet they
say nothing. How often are you biting your tongue? You’re thinking you’ll bring it up later offline. Or maybe you’ll
address it next time around. Or you don’t want to have that difficult conversation.

48. “Suggested items prompt
some good conversation.
I’ll choose a tough one and
say ‘oh, I was prompted to
ask this by the bot’.”
- SoapBox customer
Something surprising we hear from our customers is that they don’t have the courage to bring up difficult questions
on their own. That’s why we have a suggested item feature to encourage tough questions for more meaningful
conversations. The surprising thing we’ve learned is that people use it not because they’re stumped on what to talk
about. Rather, it gives them the courage to ask the tough stuff. They blame it on the bot!

49. Stir the pot.
My advice is to stir the pot. Whether it is a bot that gets the conversation started, or a bot, it’s for the best. Don’t be
polite and leave things unsaid. This is when you bring out. Meaningful debates or get at the root cause.

50. Onto the final manner: making performance public. Since our school days, we’ve learned that the assessment of our
performance is done privately. Your report card comes in a sealed envelope. Then, at work, it’s the same: we do
performance reviews privately. Yes, some things should be kept private, but much of how people are doing can be
discussed as a group – it pushes people to do better.

51. Let’s look at a leadership team meeting. How many of you get together on a regular basis with the leaders in your
company? You probably think the benefit here is cross-functional collaboration. People know what others are
working on. But you’re missing the extra value: calling people to task. Challenging them on what they are doing and
holding them accountable for results. In our weekly leadership meeting at SoapBox (we call it an Overview Meeting),
we spend more than 50% of the time reviewing how each of us has done and what can be done better. People are a
lot more engaged in this meeting now. Knowing they can be challenged makes them up their game.

52. Hold people accountable…
in front of their peers
And so I suggest you lose the polite manners of grading people privately. Hold people accountable in front of their
peers and see how the conversations you have in meetings go to a whole new level.

53. RECAP
Manners
Decline meetings
Stir the pot
Hold people
accountable… in front
of their peers
Mindset
Role model desired
behavior.
Meetings are work.
Receive something
each meeting.
Let’s look at what we covered: the three mindsets and three manners I suggest you have.

54. What is your one thing you’ll do differently back at the office?
So with that, let’s go back to our initial objective: what’s the one thing you’ll do differently back at the office?
Think about it. Write it down.

55. But I’m not going to let you off that easy. As we discussed at the beginning, creating new habits isn’t easy. If it was, I
wouldn’t be here. You know what does compel change?

56. Fear.
Fear. Fear is what makes us change. Think about the person who knows they need to eat better. Often it isn’t until a
life-threatening illness that makes them change their ways. The same goes for our habits at work. In order for you to
change the way you act in meetings, I need you to think about the worst thing that could happen at your company if
you continue to have bad meetings.

57. Don’t be another statistic.
Do something about your meetings.
That’s your #1 growth hack
SoapBoxHQ.com/saastock
Final thoughts. And I mean this sincerely: I really want you to fix this. We’re all here at SaaStock to grow our business.
I’m excited to go back to the office and work with my team on what I’ve learned. And – I’m going to do it successfully
because I won’t waste time in meetings. I hope that it’s the same for you.

58. SoapBoxHQ.com/saastock
jessica@soapboxhq.com
@WeiszJess
QUESTIONS? THOUGHTS?