logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
18m 27s

Meeting expectations

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Every day 55 million meetings take place in the United States. But just how effective are they at actually getting stuff done? British comedian David Mitchell has been investigating how the meeting evolved and the "meeting-isation" of society.

(Picture: a man boring colleagues during a meeting. Credit: Getty Images.)

Up next
Jul 10
Business Daily meets: Max Levchin
The fintech entrepreneur tells us about co-founding PayPal, and how an embarrassing personal moment when trying to buy a car, led him to start the buy now, pay later company Affirm.Produced and presented by Leanna Byrne(Image: PayPal Co-Founder & Affirm CEO Max Levchin in 2019. C ... Show More
17m 34s
Jul 9
The impact of 'thirsty' data centres
We're in the US state of Georgia, where huge data centres need water to keep cool. But how is this need for cloud storage and AI capability affecting local residents and the environment?Presenter: Michelle Fleury Producer: Nathalie Jimenez(Image: Georgia resident Beverly Morris l ... Show More
17m 50s
Jul 8
Does university still get you a well-paid job?
Graduates are facing one of the toughest jobs markets in decades. We hear from students in India, the US and UK about whether they feel a university or college degree is worth it as we discuss the cost of attending university around the world and what your job prospects might be ... Show More
17m 27s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Meetings
On the agenda for the final programme of the current series is meetings. Virtual or in person, it's difficult to avoid a work meeting. So how do you ensure a good meeting? What should their purpose be, how many people should attend, who should speak and when? Evan Davis and guest ... Show More
28m 49s
Nov 2019
Why Meetings Go Wrong (And How to Fix Them)
Steven Rogelberg, a professor at UNC Charlotte, has spent decades researching workplace meetings and reports that many of them are a waste of time. Why? Because the vast majority of managers aren't trained in or reviewed on effective meeting management. He explains how leaders ca ... Show More
27m 15s
Oct 2023
Why Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them | WorkLife with Adam Grant
WorkLife with Adam Grant, another podcast from the TED Audio Collective is back! This season, Adam takes a look at how to find meaningful work and how to make jobs more energizing. In this first episode: meetings. Meetings often drain our joy and sap our focus — and meeting overl ... Show More
33m 24s
Oct 2023
Why Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them | WorkLife with Adam Grant
Meetings often drain our joy and sap our focus-–and meeting overload kills productivity. So why do we have so many of them– and is a better world possible? Adam investigates the science of improving meetings and explores how workplaces are fighting meeting bloat. Available transc ... Show More
33m 9s
Mar 2017
Make Meetings Less Awful | 12
Meetings can be an extremely frustrating part of work. But they don't have to be! Listen to this episode with guest Claire Johnson of Stripe to discover a meeting opportunity you may be missing, learn how to combat the worst meeting habit, and get some tips you can use to start i ... Show More
24m 50s
Nov 2022
Company Meet-Up: Amsterdam Edition
Meetups offer remote companies an opportunity to gather away from the day-to-day for more in-depth conversations that foster deeper relationships for the team and bigger leaps for the company.  At the beginning of October, sixty 37signals employees met up in Amsterdam for the fir ... Show More
18m 39s
Mar 2017
#36: Daniel Tardy—Nine Strategies That Will Make Your Meetings More Productive
Why are most meetings so awful? A lot of us leave every meeting feeling like we’ve wasted our time and gotten nowhere on a problem -- only to get back to our desks farther behind on our “real jobs.” But with a little intention, we can make meetings not just productive, but also e ... Show More
37m 48s
Jul 2013
275 GIDG Scheduling Lots of Meetings and Staying Sane
When you're in a job that demands marathons of meetings, here's how to make sure you stay on the top of your game as you dive into the meeting madness. 
6m 20s
Sep 2019
#101 How to master meetings
All of the data points to meetings being an increasingly ineffective way of us getting work done. In this week’s podcast, Helen and Sarah explore what’s going wrong with meetings, sharing their own experiences of the good and not so good and thoughts on common wisdom to make them ... Show More
48m 34s