To tap meetings for study, researchers typically use two approaches. The first is a classic survey in which researchers retroactively ask people about their real or simulated meeting experiences and analyze the responses. The second method is to analyze specific behaviors and trends extracted from audio and video recordings of meetings. Such precise content is “where the music is,” says industrial and organizational psychologist Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, director of the Center for Better Work at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

In one experiment, Lehmann-Willenbrock and colleagues extracted data from video-recorded meetings to study how leader communication affects team interaction during decision-making. The researchers found that respectful, attentive inquiry by meeting leaders enhanced team performance, in contrast to when leaders asked questions but didn’t attentively listen to responses.

Leading with listening

As with many meeting science studies, their findings about what improves meetings’ effectiveness often seem obvious, but meeting researchers note that meetings often stray far from these ideals.

Such research also consistently reveals the importance of active listening, says Lehmann-Willenbrock: not just passive acknowledgement by the listener but actively providing thoughtful feedback. In virtual meetings, because “we’ve all learned to mute ourselves if we’re not talking, very often, active listening is killed completely.”

The balance of listening and speaking also can influence how well a meeting goes. Meeting leaders and participants may retain very different views of whether a meeting was successful, notes Lehmann-Willenbrock. “Often, leaders talk the most, which is also why they often think their meetings are pretty good,” she says. Kreamer also emphasizes that it’s important that meeting leaders lead but not dominate the discussion. Leaders should monitor the proportion of time they are speaking to allow for inclusion of many voices.

Research supports a checklist of additional things that leaders can do before, during, and after a meeting to make it a success, says Lehmann-Willenbrock. To set the stage, leaders should choose appropriate rooms, refreshments, and lighting, invite only those who need to be there, plan to start and end on time, prepare an agenda, set and communicate clear goals, and allow time for pre-meeting conversation.