What Happens Between Meetings Matters More Than We Think

Most leaders spend a significant part of their working day in meetings. One meeting ends. The next one begins. Sometimes there are five minutes in between. Sometimes none.

We have become so accustomed to this rhythm that it rarely feels like a problem.

But getting used to a way of working is not the same as knowing what it does to our performance.

The potential cost is difficult to notice because nothing necessarily goes visibly wrong. The meeting happens. Decisions are made. Work continues. What we don't see as easily is whether we would think differently, make better decisions or contribute more effectively if the conditions around our work were different.

A meeting does not necessarily end when the calendar says it does

Allen et al. (2022) studied what happens around workplace meetings and highlighted something simple: people need transition time between meetings and subsequent tasks.

A meeting creates cognitive and emotional activity that does not disappear the moment we click “Leave meeting.” We may still be processing what was said, thinking about a decision, regulating an emotional reaction, or mentally preparing for what comes next.

Interestingly, this is not only relevant after difficult meetings. Also, a productive, engaging meeting can require processing. New ideas create thoughts, decisions create follow-up needs, meaningful conversations continue in our minds after the conversation itself has ended.

The relevant question is therefore not simply: Do we have good or bad meetings?

It is also: Do we have have enough transition time between meetings to maintain and prepare our capacity for what comes next?

The calendar is part of the performance environment

We often think about calendars as logistics, but from a human performance perspective, they are much more than that.

A calendar determines how frequently attention needs to shift, how much uninterrupted thinking time exists, how much transition time people have between cognitively demanding situations, and how much of the working day is spent reacting rather than processing.

In other words, the calendar design is part of the actual environment in which human performance emerges.

This matters increasingly in the AI era. As technology takes over more routine processing, the relative value of human judgement, learning, creativity and collaboration increases. But these capabilities are not infinitely available. They depend on the conditions in which people are expected to use them.

The problem may be invisible

This creates an interesting management challenge: An organisation can appear to function perfectly well while simultaneously using its human capacity inefficiently.

• People attend the meetings.

• Emails get answered.

• Decisions get made.

• Projects move forward.

There may be no obvious crisis.

The relevant comparison is not between working and not working (what). It is between the performance we currently get from our human capacity and the performance that might be possible under better conditions (how).

• Could decisions be better?

• Could people notice connections they currently miss?

• Could learning happen faster?

• Could complex problems be solved with less effort or less friction?

• Could the organisation get more value from the same people?

These costs rarely appear directly in financial statements. But they can influence how effectively an organisation executes its strategy.

Human capacity is a business resource

Every organisation has a finite amount of human capacity.

The management question goes beyond: How to make people more productive?

It is also: Where does human capacity create the most value?

• How much capacity is actually available?

• Where is it being spent today?

• What builds it — and what unnecessarily depletes it?

• And how can it be directed toward the situations where the business needs human judgement, learning and collaboration most?

A meeting is no longer just a meeting and a calendar is no longer just a calendar. They are part of the system that determines how effectively an organisation converts human capacity into business performance.

Try this after your next meeting

You don't need to redesign your calendar overnight. Start with a simple experiment.

After your next meeting, block 15 minutes before moving on.

• 10 minutes to process and complete the thinking.

• 5 minutes to mentally reset before your next task.

During the first 15 minutes, ask yourself:

• What does this meeting mean for me? For my goals/ schedule /project etc.

• Do I need to take action? Or no action at all?

• What is my next step?

• When will I do it?

Then schedule that work in your calendar with a description of your next action before moving on.

Use the final five minutes to transition: Stand up. Stretch. Walk for a moment. Take a few slow breaths. Empty your mind.

It may feel like you're "losing" 20 minutes.

In reality, you may be protecting the quality of the next several hours.

When thinking matters, conditions matter first.

Source for thinking: Allen, J. A., Thiese, M. S., Eden, E., & Knowles, S. E. (2022). Why am I so exhausted? Exploring meeting-to-work transition time and recovery from virtual meeting fatigue. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 64(12), 1053–1058.