Every meeting you lead is also a reputation event—and a leadership audition: people leave judging not only the meeting, but you. This episode of 97% Effective takes aim at the mother of all time sinks at work: meetings. Host Michael Wenderoth speaks with Chris Fenning about his latest book, Effective Meetings: Great Results, Less Pain, Every Time. They cover the practical essentials — how to open a meeting, keep it on track, and manage people who derail it — but also the issues most leaders avoid: the silent reputational hit you take when you run a bad meeting, why AI can summarize meetings but cannot fix the human judgment behind them, and when the best meeting is no meeting at all. If people quietly complain about meetings in your company — or, let’s be honest, the ones you run — this episode will give you practical ways to make them sharper, shorter, and more useful.
SHOW NOTES
Michael and Chris demo
TPO in real time (Topic-Purpose-Output)
The forgotten second step: checking that everyone is aligned
The real reason he wrote his latest book
Why meetings were the next workplace problem Chris had to tackle
The hidden “meeting tax”: how bad meetings drain time, money, attention, morale, and credibility
Calculating the tangible dollar cost of a bad meeting
Calculating the intangible cost -- to your reputation – from running a bad meeting
Companies have spending controls, but no controls over calling people into meetings that don’t produce anything
The shocking MIT stats: online shopping, mobile games, and proof that many people shouldn’t be in the meeting at all
Before the meeting: Keys to preparation
The single biggest impact you can make
Why AI can take notes and see patterns– but cannot decide why your meeting exists
Why Chris thinks agendas are not the “quick fix” solution to improving your meetings
Don’t schedule a meeting unless you can first answer three points
How everything – who you invite, how you invite them and how you run the meeting -- all starts with TPO (Topic-Purpose-Output)
Three questions to ask to determine if you even need a meeting
Preparation is valuable – and doesn’t have to be a time suck
During the meeting: How to keep it from going off the rails
Top tip about running a virtual meeting
Ways to improve how you show up on camera online
Managing the person who disrupts and derails your meeting
What to do when a meeting feels good, but it is not advancing
How to cut someone off without becoming the office Darth Vader
Practical gems
“Finding your sweet spot” – the healthy middle ground between Micromanager and Lord of Chaos
Top tip on making meetings better if you don’t lead them
The 97% Effective way to nudge a bad meeting leader: leave Chris’s book on their desk
The next exciting project for Chris
BIO AND LINKS
Chris Fenning helps professionals master their communication at work. Whether it is helping experts talk to non-experts, teams talk to executives, or simply being able to start a message clearly. Chris's practical methods are used in organisations like Google, JP Morgan, and NATO, and have appeared in the Harvard Business Review. He is also the author of four award-winning books on communication and training that have sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide. Find out how Chris can help you at www.chrisfenning.com
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