SIOP Work Smart Series Workshop Digs into The Science of Meetings

The June Work Smart Series workshop on The Science of Meetings brought insight into one of the most ubiquitous aspects of work life: workplace meetings. The workshop was led by renowned meeting scholars, Dr. Joseph A. Allen (University of Utah) and Dr. Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock (University of Hamburg) and coordinated by Work Smart Series committee members Crystal Turner and Nikita Arun. Our facilitators delivered evidence-based recommendations for improving meeting effectiveness before, during, and after workplace meetings.

They opened the workshop by grounding participants in the fundamentals of meeting science. They drew from years of collaborative research and reframed meetings as more than just communication tools. They highlighted the function of meetings as opportunities for conferencing, leadership visibility, building team camaraderie, and cultural expression within an organization. Attendees learned about the impact of meetings, from job satisfaction and engagement to team creativity and overall job performance.

The facilitators also shared research-backed insights into how positive and negative behaviors can both be contagious. Lehmann-Willenbrock discussed how behaviors such as shared humor, solution-oriented discussion, and collective leadership can enhance team quality. In addition, she walked through the harmful ripple effects of lateness, complaining, and off-topic derailment. This showed how meeting dynamics matter significantly.

The workshop also focused on best practices for meetings and practical strategies to implement. Allen walked through evidence-based recommendations for each phase of the meeting life cycle, from design and preparation before the meeting, to leadership and engagement during the meeting, to structured follow-ups after the meeting. Joe and Nale also introduced opportunities and challenges emerging from hybrid meetings, such as inclusion, technology, and virtual meeting fatigue.

Attendees were engaged throughout the workshop with breakout activities, live reflections, and polls. One activity invited participants to share their “meeting pet peeves,” which sparked a lively discussion about common meeting pain points. A think-pair-share exercise gave participants the opportunity to apply meeting science to critical incidents from their own experience, identifying root causes and brainstorming improvements. The workshop closed with a reflection exercise using the start-stop-continue framework, helping participants identify specific actions they can implement immediately to improve their own meetings and meeting culture at their organization.

Participant responses to the workshop were extremely positive, with 100% of respondents indicating that the workshop fulfilled its learning objectives and was worth their time. All respondents also indicated that they learned new concepts in an inclusive and welcoming environment that was supportive of learning. Some example participant comments included: “I appreciated having some of the research papers relevant to this topic included in the workshop resources and will also plan to go back to the recording to reinforce a few key points” and “Thank you to Dr. Allen, Dr. Lehmann-Willenbrock and the Work Smart Series team for all of your work organizing this great workshop!”

You can still register to access the workshop recording, all the materials that were shared, and additional resources by emailing worksmart@siop.org. (Please note that breakout sessions were not recorded.) And if you were able to attend, you have continued access to the recording and resources— – this is a workshop you will benefit from revisiting.

A sincere thank you to Dr. Joe Allen and Dr. Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock for sharing their time, expertise, and practical insights to help us improve the way we meet!

For more information about sponsoring this SIOP learning channel, please contact Susan Rogers at srogers@siop.org. If you have questions or ideas for the Work Smart Series Team, please email worksmart@siop.org.

Save the Date

Our next SIOP Work Smart Series virtual workshop, coordinated by Jean Stetz-Puchalski & Megan VanHoy, will be The Ripple Effect – Systemic Leadership Coaching for Organizational Impact and feature experts Dr. Brodie Riordan, PCC; Dr. Gavan O’Shea, ACC; Lucy Widdowson MSc, MCC, ACTC; and Robert Garcia, MBA, ACC. It will take place on Wednesday, August 20, from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET. Watch for more details on the SIOP Work Smart Series page and please spread the word to colleagues and friends. You can register even if you can’t attend live; all registrants will have access to the workshop recording and resource package.