ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Grady - Information security manager
David Grady is on a crusade to help you take back your calendar.

Why you should listen

David Grady is an information security manager who believes that strong communication skills are
a necessity in today’s global economy. He has been a print journalist, a “PR guy” and a website producer, and has ghostwritten speeches and magazine articles for Fortune 500 company executives. A mid-life career change brought him into the world of information risk management, where every day he uses his communications experience to transform complex problems into understandable challenges.

More profile about the speaker
David Grady | Speaker | TED.com
TED@State Street Boston

David Grady: How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings

Filmed:
2,459,605 views

An epidemic of bad, inefficient, overcrowded meetings is plaguing the world’s businesses — and making workers miserable. David Grady has some ideas on how to stop it.
- Information security manager
David Grady is on a crusade to help you take back your calendar. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
Picture this:
0
1272
1377
00:14
It's Monday morning,
1
2649
1093
00:15
you're at the office,
2
3742
1119
00:16
you're settling in for the day at work,
3
4861
1754
00:18
and this guy that you sort of
recognize from down the hall,
4
6615
2822
00:21
walks right into your cubicle
5
9437
1836
00:23
and he steals your chair.
6
11273
1402
00:24
Doesn't say a word —
7
12675
1242
00:25
just rolls away with it.
8
13917
1388
00:27
Doesn't give you any information
about why he took your chair
9
15305
2483
00:29
out of all the other chairs
that are out there.
10
17788
2111
00:31
Doesn't acknowledge the fact
that you might need your chair
11
19899
2142
00:34
to get some work done today.
12
22041
1541
00:35
You wouldn't stand for
it. You'd make a stink.
13
23582
2257
00:37
You'd follow that guy
back to his cubicle
14
25839
2027
00:39
and you'd say, "Why my chair?"
15
27866
3312
00:43
Okay, so now it's Tuesday morning
and you're at the office,
16
31178
4121
00:47
and a meeting invitation pops
up in your calendar.
17
35299
2729
00:50
(Laughter)
18
38028
1605
00:51
And it's from this woman who you
kind of know from down the hall,
19
39633
3076
00:54
and the subject line references some
project that you heard a little bit about.
20
42709
3805
00:58
But there's no agenda.
21
46514
1683
01:00
There's no information about why
you were invited to the meeting.
22
48197
3076
01:03
And yet you accept the
meeting invitation, and you go.
23
51273
4616
01:07
And when this highly
unproductive session is over,
24
55889
2927
01:10
you go back to your desk,
25
58816
1683
01:12
and you stand at your
desk and you say,
26
60499
1509
01:14
"Boy, I wish I had those two hours back,
27
62008
2663
01:16
like I wish I had my chair back."
28
64671
2003
01:18
(Laughter)
29
66674
1506
01:20
Every day, we allow our coworkers,
30
68180
2571
01:22
who are otherwise very,
very nice people,
31
70751
2214
01:24
to steal from us.
32
72965
1667
01:26
And I'm talking about something far
more valuable than office furniture.
33
74632
4078
01:30
I'm talking about time. Your time.
34
78710
3029
01:33
In fact, I believe that
35
81739
2653
01:36
we are in the middle
of a global epidemic
36
84392
2485
01:38
of a terrible new illness
known as MAS:
37
86877
5040
01:43
Mindless Accept Syndrome.
38
91917
2273
01:46
(Laughter)
39
94190
1894
01:48
The primary symptom of
Mindless Accept Syndrome
40
96084
2701
01:50
is just accepting a meeting invitation
the minute it pops up in your calendar.
41
98785
3920
01:54
(Laughter)
42
102705
1270
01:55
It's an involuntary reflex — ding,
click, bing — it's in your calendar,
43
103975
3668
01:59
"Gotta go, I'm already late
for a meeting." (Laughter)
44
107643
3293
02:02
Meetings are important, right?
45
110936
2387
02:05
And collaboration is key to
the success of any enterprise.
46
113323
2946
02:08
And a well-run meeting can yield
really positive, actionable results.
47
116269
3393
02:11
But between globalization
48
119662
1758
02:13
and pervasive information technology,
49
121420
2315
02:15
the way that we work
50
123735
1671
02:17
has really changed dramatically
over the last few years.
51
125406
3229
02:20
And we're miserable. (Laughter)
52
128635
3207
02:23
And we're miserable not because the
other guy can't run a good meeting,
53
131842
3540
02:27
it's because of MAS, our
Mindless Accept Syndrome,
54
135382
2812
02:30
which is a self-inflicted wound.
55
138194
3776
02:33
Actually, I have evidence to prove
that MAS is a global epidemic.
56
141970
5147
02:39
Let me tell you why.
57
147117
1647
02:40
A couple of years ago, I put a video
on Youtube, and in the video,
58
148764
4272
02:45
I acted out every terrible
conference call you've ever been on.
59
153036
3198
02:48
It goes on for about five minutes,
60
156234
1659
02:49
and it has all the things that we
hate about really bad meetings.
61
157893
3191
02:53
There's the moderator who has
no idea how to run the meeting.
62
161084
3343
02:56
There are the participants who
have no idea why they're there.
63
164427
2558
02:58
The whole thing kind of collapses
into this collaborative train wreck.
64
166985
3703
03:02
And everybody leaves very angry.
65
170688
2426
03:05
It's kind of funny.
66
173114
1789
03:06
(Laughter)
67
174903
1583
03:08
Let's take a quick look.
68
176486
2152
03:10
(Video) Our goal today is to come to an
agreement on a very important proposal.
69
178638
3827
03:14
As a group, we need to decide if —
70
182465
2087
03:16
bloop bloop —
71
184552
2779
03:19
Hi, who just joined?
72
187331
3567
03:22
Hi, it's Joe. I'm working from home today.
73
190898
3012
03:25
(Laughter)
74
193910
1890
03:27
Hi, Joe. Thanks for
joining us today, great.
75
195800
3068
03:30
I was just saying, we have a lot of people
on the call we'd like to get through,
76
198868
2790
03:33
so let's skip the roll call
77
201658
1634
03:35
and I'm gonna dive right in.
78
203292
2673
03:37
Our goal today is to come to an
agreement on a very important proposal.
79
205965
3875
03:41
As a group, we need to decide if —
80
209840
2565
03:44
bloop bloop —
81
212405
1293
03:45
(Laughter)
82
213698
1463
03:47
Hi, who just joined?
83
215161
2023
03:49
No? I thought I heard a beep. (Laughter)
84
217184
4809
03:53
Sound familiar?
85
221993
1636
03:55
Yeah, it sounds familiar
to me, too.
86
223629
1977
03:57
A couple of weeks after I put that online,
87
225606
2056
03:59
500,000 people in dozens of countries,
88
227662
2801
04:02
I mean dozens of countries,
89
230463
1640
04:04
watched this video.
90
232103
1184
04:05
And three years later, it's still getting
thousands of views every month.
91
233287
3354
04:08
It's close to about a million right now.
92
236641
1967
04:10
And in fact, some of the biggest
companies in the world,
93
238608
2008
04:12
companies that you've
heard of but I won't name,
94
240616
1910
04:14
have asked for my permission to use
this video in their new-hire training
95
242526
3895
04:18
to teach their new employees how
not to run a meeting at their company.
96
246421
4249
04:22
And if the numbers —
97
250670
1485
04:24
there are a million views and it's
being used by all these companies —
98
252155
2381
04:26
aren't enough proof that we have
a global problem with meetings,
99
254536
3526
04:30
there are the many, many thousands
100
258062
1777
04:31
of comments posted online
101
259839
1620
04:33
after the video went up.
102
261459
2188
04:35
Thousands of people wrote things like,
103
263647
1974
04:37
"OMG, that was my day today!"
104
265621
1854
04:39
"That was my day every day!"
105
267475
1963
04:41
"This is my life."
106
269438
1159
04:42
One guy wrote,
107
270597
930
04:43
"It's funny because it's true.
108
271527
1539
04:45
Eerily, sadly, depressingly true.
109
273066
1907
04:46
It made me laugh until I cried.
110
274973
1718
04:48
And cried. And I cried some more."
111
276691
2750
04:51
(Laughter)
112
279441
1632
04:53
This poor guy said,
113
281073
1461
04:54
"My daily life until
retirement or death, sigh."
114
282534
5077
04:59
These are real quotes
115
287611
1400
05:01
and it's real sad.
116
289011
1799
05:02
A common theme running through
all of these comments online
117
290810
2823
05:05
is this fundamental belief
that we are powerless
118
293633
2541
05:08
to do anything other
than go to meetings
119
296174
1901
05:10
and suffer through these
poorly run meetings
120
298075
2378
05:12
and live to meet another day.
121
300453
2089
05:14
But the truth is, we're
not powerless at all.
122
302542
3141
05:17
In fact, the cure for MAS
is right here in our hands.
123
305683
3093
05:20
It's right at our fingertips, literally.
124
308792
2185
05:22
It's something that I call ¡No MAS!
125
310977
3261
05:26
(Laughter)
126
314238
2230
05:28
Which, if I remember my
high school Spanish,
127
316468
2398
05:30
means something like,
"Enough already, make it stop!"
128
318866
2791
05:33
Here's how No MAS
works. It's very simple.
129
321657
2752
05:36
First of all, the next time you
get a meeting invitation
130
324409
3197
05:39
that doesn't have a lot
of information in it at all,
131
327606
2847
05:42
click the tentative button!
132
330453
1840
05:44
It's okay, you're allowed,
that's why it's there.
133
332293
2450
05:46
It's right next to the accept button.
134
334743
1509
05:48
Or the maybe button, or whatever button
is there for you not to accept immediately.
135
336252
3594
05:51
Then, get in touch with the person
who asked you to the meeting.
136
339846
3783
05:55
Tell them you're very excited
to support their work,
137
343629
2586
05:58
ask them what the goal
of the meeting is,
138
346215
2015
06:00
and tell them you're interested in learning
how you can help them achieve their goal.
139
348230
3687
06:03
And if we do this often enough,
140
351917
1928
06:05
and we do it respectfully,
141
353845
1338
06:07
people might start to be
a little bit more thoughtful
142
355183
2037
06:09
about the way they put together
meeting invitations.
143
357220
2462
06:11
And you can make more thoughtful
decisions about accepting it.
144
359682
2852
06:14
People might actually start
sending out agendas. Imagine!
145
362534
3260
06:17
Or they might not have a conference call
with 12 people to talk about a status
146
365794
3748
06:21
when they could just do a quick
email and get it done with.
147
369542
3283
06:24
People just might start to change their
behavior because you changed yours.
148
372825
4834
06:29
And they just might bring
your chair back, too. (Laughter)
149
377659
3485
06:33
No MAS!
150
381144
1375
06:34
Thank you.
151
382519
1440
06:35
(Applause).
152
383959
2066

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Grady - Information security manager
David Grady is on a crusade to help you take back your calendar.

Why you should listen

David Grady is an information security manager who believes that strong communication skills are
a necessity in today’s global economy. He has been a print journalist, a “PR guy” and a website producer, and has ghostwritten speeches and magazine articles for Fortune 500 company executives. A mid-life career change brought him into the world of information risk management, where every day he uses his communications experience to transform complex problems into understandable challenges.

More profile about the speaker
David Grady | Speaker | TED.com