(2016 - 9/9) Three Best Practices to Increase Your Happiness in Meetings

Calibrate 2016 (9/9) - http://www.calibratesf.com/

"Three Best Practices to Increase Your Happiness in Meetings" - Marcy Swenson, Executive Coach, Startup Happiness

"As a leader, you are suddenly in a lot more meetings than you were as an individual contributor. There are some tried & true suggestions for making meetings more effective: start on time, have an agenda, and put away your devices ... but how can you actually improve the quality of all meetings, whether you’re the facilitator or an attendee? I’ll share three best practices that I teach my clients over and over, that will give you a whole different perspective on meetings."

Marcy is an executive coach, as well as a seasoned technology professional, and a veteran of several successful startups. As a founder at Critical Path, she built the tech team that led to IPO. Forbes named CPTH the fastest growing high tech company in the world in 1999 (3 to 3000 in 4 years). Marcy is a co-founder & executive coach at Startup Happiness, where she helps entrepreneurs with everything from basic leadership skills to deep personal growth.

https://twitter.com/marcyswenson
http://startuphappiness.com/

Calibrate is a conference for new engineering leaders hosted by seasoned engineering leaders. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted on September 30, 2015 and September 30, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

Transcript

1. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Three Ways to Grow Your Happiness In Meetings marcy@startuphappiness.com
2. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS executive coach VP Engr/co-founder
3. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS 1. Plan for success 2. Create psychological safety 3. Ask for feedback on facilitation
4. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS 1. Plan for success
5. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS If this meeting is successful, what will the outcome be? Will the right people be in the room? Are the decision-maker & processes clear? Should you talk to anyone beforehand? If this meeting fails, why?
6. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS How much preparation? A room full of 10 engineers for 1hr =
7. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS 2. Create psychological safety
8. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Google Project Aristotle (2012)
9. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html Conversational turn-taking High social sensitivity Successful teams had only TWO shared traits
10. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Turned out, psychological safety was the best predictor of successful teams. Teams will not embarrass, reject, or punish someone for speaking up.
11. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS UCLA Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (2008) Matthew Lieberman & Naomi Eisenberger http://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/Pains&Pleasures(2008).pdf
12. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS registers social AND physical pain Bodyparts 3D/The Database Center for Life Science Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
13. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS The workplace is a SOCIAL SYSTEM (even for engineers)
14. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
15. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Ohhh… You don’t know <programing language>? That’s a dumb idea. Why would you want to do it *that* way? *laughs* *rolls eyes* Tone = contempt, impatience Engineering Microaggressions
16. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Talk about psychological safety in your team. Reframe difficult statements in meetings. Speak for people who might not feel safe in public. “It’s OK not to know things, as long as you’re willing to learn” Include teaching/mentoring in your career ladder. Model not knowing *yourself*. What You Can Do as a Leader
17. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS 3. Ask for feedback on facilitation
18. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
19. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS http://startuphappiness.com Blog post about this:
20. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Four Ways to Grow Your Happiness In Meetings marcy@startuphappiness.com marcy@startuphappiness.com
21. GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS