Description: Transform meetings from time-wasters to productivity powerhouses with expert insights from Andy Marris, thought leader and Learning & Development Trainer at MRA - The Management Association. Discover actionable tips for meaningful outcomes and progress. Perfect for team leaders, project managers, and professionals seeking to optimize their valuable time.
Resources:
Leading Effective Meetings - Training 
Is This Meeting a Must? 
MRA Membership 
About MRA 
Let's Connect:
Guest Bio - Andy Marris 
Guest LinkedIn Profile - Andy Marris 
Host Bio - Sophie Boler 
Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler 
Transcript:
Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.
00:00:21:05 - 00:00:43:01
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to episode number 50. We're celebrating this episode today, so it's a little special. So thanks for being our 50th guest Andy, Cheers to that! Oh, I know it's your first time being hot here. I am a little hurt, you know, 50.
00:00:43:03 - 00:01:05:05
Unknown
There's been 49 without me. I thought you like me, Sophie. No But seriously, though be glad to be here. We saved you for a good episode so. All right, well, that makes me feel better. Well, we all know there's kind of a collective groan when you hear this is going to be a fun meeting. And one of our team members actually has a notebook that says notes and doodles for meetings.
00:01:05:05 - 00:01:28:13
Unknown
That should have been emails. Oh, so we've all been there. We've all sat through meetings, have felt like they've kind of been wasting time and just wasting that productive time. And now with the whole hybrid and remote work factors, meetings just seem to have lost their power. So today we're going to be discussing tips on how to make meetings great and not merely just meeting to meet.
00:01:28:15 - 00:01:49:17
Unknown
So today I'm here with an expert on the topic, Andy Marris. He's an MRA learning and development instructor, but he really has broad expertise and leadership growth, change management, brand marketing, and much more so in a lot of different roles too, like leader, coach, motivator and trainer. So I know you'll have a lot of great tips for us today.
00:01:49:20 - 00:02:07:22
Unknown
Know this is a topic I'm very passionate about. Not a big fan of wasting time and I've been in four or five hour meetings that were really effective. Yes, absolutely. Very 20 meeting, 20 minute meetings, like why am I here? Right. So really important that we get this right. Oh, we got to start out with the negatives. Unfortunately.
00:02:07:23 - 00:02:33:09
Unknown
So what are some top complaints of having meetings generally? Oh, there's so many. There's so many. To me maybe my biggest. Yeah. Complaint is when the meeting is supposed to end at a certain time and it goes way over a minute or two or human. I actually try to leave slightly early. We can talk about that later, but it's, it's really irritating when it goes way beyond it.
00:02:33:09 - 00:02:53:13
Unknown
And you've got other responsibilities, other duties. Another thing that really bothers me is when it doesn't have an agenda, you sit there wondering, why am I here? And I actually want to add value to the meeting. But if I'm not aware of what we're even going to try and solve or understand. And in the meeting that's really been set up to fail, they already feel like a huge waste of time.
00:02:53:13 - 00:03:13:06
Unknown
Yeah, we're all so busy. Oh, add on to the negative ones too. I feel like one of my pet peeves is when no one's really engaged in the meeting either