Stanford Meeting Expert: Your Packed Calendar Is Not Work!

Why do we keep sitting in meetings we know are a waste of time? And why do 75% of employees say AI makes them more productive while only 13% say their company sees real value? Dr. Rebecca Hinds has studied both. She leads the Work AI Institute at Glean, holds a PhD from Stanford, and wrote the USA TODAY bestseller Your Best Meeting Ever. In this episode of Truth Works, host Jessica Neal, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, asks her what actually fixes meetings, why AI is not showing up in company results, and what leaders should do about both. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • Why a packed calendar became a status symbol • The 4D CEO test for deciding if a meeting should exist • Why there is no conclusive evidence that agendas improve meetings • The 27-minute meeting and the calendar cleanse • Why two productive people with AI can make the whole system worse • "Botsitting": the 6.5 hours a week workers spend supervising AI • Why copying NVIDIA's management style is dangerous • What the best CHROs are doing first on AI CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:27 Welcome to Truth Works 1:06 Introducing Dr. Rebecca Hinds 2:36 From Stanford swimmer to studying how organizations work 5:38 Why we can't stop having bad meetings 7:25 Meetings as a status symbol 9:24 What Netflix tried 10:39 Treat meetings like a product 13:10 The 4D CEO test 15:43 The truth about agendas 18:25 Parkinson's Law and the 27-minute meeting 21:09 What to do tomorrow: the calendar cleanse 23:57 If you don't own the meeting 27:23 The AI productivity gap 29:42 The hamster wheel of AI slop 31:22 Redesign the work, don't layer AI on top 35:52 Everyone is a manager now: delegating to agents 38:18 Good friction and where not to use AI 40:44 Flattening, layoffs and regret 45:15 Why what works for NVIDIA won't work for you 46:14 Advice for the CHRO 49:59 One thing to take into your week ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Rebecca Hinds leads the Work AI Institute at Glean and previously founded the Work Innovation Lab at Asana. She is the author of Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done. ABOUT THE SHOW Truth Works is hosted by Jessica Neal. Each episode is an honest conversation about why work is hard and how leaders can make it better. #TruthWorks #Leadership #Meetings #FutureOfWork #AI #CHRO