TED Talk Thursday: David Grady on Saving Yourself from Bad Meetings

It’s time to take the workday—and your time—back. David Grady, an information security manager, discusses how employees are falling victim to attending countless unproductive meetings, and wasting their time that could be spent doing almost anything else.

Grady describes this epidemic as “MAS: Mindless Accept Syndrome.” Grady explains that MAS leads workers to feel inclined to accept every meeting that finds its way into their inboxes. While attending meetings to spur productivity and collaboration can spur some tangible results, not all meetings are created equal.

Oftentimes, meeting invitations are crafted without the necessary information attendees need to come prepared or know if it is a valuable use of their time. In other instances meetings are unorganized and unproductive.

Grady wants to restore the power to the employees.

When it comes to meeting invitations, Grady stresses that the attendee is equally responsible for accepting and attending meetings that are a waste of time. Grady suggests selecting “tentatively” as the RSVP if there isn’t the necessary information in the email. If it’s not there, he suggests going to the meeting organizer and asking what the goals of the meeting are, and how you can help accomplish the goals. This gives the attendee more information and more power to make an informed decision on whether to attend, or what to bring to the meeting to make it a success.

The next time you have a meeting invite, make sure you know what you’re signing up for before you hit “Accept.”