A new campaign encourages meetings
to become more ‘women-aware’. The initiative
by LateMeetings.com argues that paying more attention
to gender could increase the overall productivity of
business events.
The project responds to evidence* of hard-wired contrasts
between male and female brains, the consequent differences
in thinking and behaviour, and the implications for
the workplace.
Comments Chris Martins, director for LateMeetings,
‘it may at first appear non-pc to infer such variables.
However, research suggests that women are measurably
less individualistic, hierarchical and status-conscious
than men, and more empathetic, democratic and relationship-oriented.
Such issues clearly affect the dynamics of meetings,’
he suggests.
Examples propose how organisers could pay more attention
to female motivational factors:
· women’s surer feel for empathy and their
people skills may make them better team leaders and
relationship-builders for group projects
· women’s nutritional preferences might
place emphasis on lighter meals and less- sugary, lower-fat
refreshments
· women’s keener sense of fashion aesthetics
might value events where attendees are more smartly
dressed
· women might prefer a coaching rather than a
chairing style of meetings leadership
· women might prefer a venue selected less for
impression, and more for practical reasons
· women are often more sensitive to good causes
and might prefer conferences that are carbon-balanced
and venues that are more socially responsible
· women-only syndicate discussions might guarantee
a contrasting perspective on key issues
· official fresh-air or fitness interludes might
suit women in order to ensure that conferences are reduced
in intensity
· electronic voting on major issues might appeal
to some women if this helps to minimise possible friction
or confrontation
· women might prefer greater transparency from
organisers as to selection criteria for venues - with
less emphasis simply on saving money
‘LateMeetings.com does not envisage that male-female
attitudes during meetings should become more polarised,
but merely better integrated,’ Martins adds.
* * *
* Martins highlights the 2006 title Inside Her Pretty
Little Head (Cunningham, J., and Roberts, P.).
Do meetings organisers allow for ‘morningness’
and ‘eveningness’?
Far more emphasis is now placed by hotels on ensuring
that their business guests experience a better night’s
sleep during their stay. For example, Hilton promise
‘the most luxurious sleep you’ll ever experience’
(special mattress, duvet, and linens); Travelodge feature
king-size beds; and Marriott are highlighting their
new Elite Dreamer luxury bedding collection.
Clearly the importance of a good night’s sleep
has become newsworthy, and trendy, and the talk now
is of the resulting performance enhancement, improved
concentration levels, added reliability, increased brain
power, plus greater receptiveness to new ideas …
and conversely, to tiredness-related negatives such
as irritableness, error-proneness, and over-rigid thinking.
According to sleep experts, an extra hour’s sleep
boosts alertness by up to a quarter throughout the following
day.
But is such creditable investment by the hotel sector
enough? Ought meetings planners to spend more time in
advance in tuning into the 24-hour circadian rhythms
of their participants … in order to evaluate how
best to accommodate the contrasting body clocks of each
delegate within the time-tabling of their events?
‘Larks’ and ‘Owls’
Body clock biology suggests that there is a strong genetic
basis to our internal rhythms. Apparently our inherited
genes help explain why we display variations in our
preference for different phases within a day. Expressed
simply, so-called ‘Larks’, or morning people,
like to be earlier in bed, and up earlier next morning,
with ‘Owls’ much the opposite. Neither category
is ‘better’ than the other, but larks have
no problem being bright and breezy at the prompt start
of a conference or seminar (and indeed, may relish the
stimulation), whereas owls may be decidedly zombie-headed.
The situation can be made worse by the tendency of many
owls to miss out on breakfast because they don’t
feel like it, or are too rushed.
Meetings productivity
Such lark/owl traits should arguably be taken more seriously
be event planners, even though the general pressures
of holding down a job tend to make us all a bit more
lark-like (other than at weekends!). Nevertheless, some
staff deliberately opt for flexitime jobs in order to
start their jobs earlier or later, whilst work-place
studies do demonstrate that larks and owls acknowledge
that their creativity, receptiveness, diligence, performance,
and mood can vary according to their preferred period
of the day.
Clearly there are implications for meetings organisers,
and ten suggestions from www.meetingsresearch.com follow
in the interests of helping to better plan the scheduling
of a busy agenda. The worst-case scenario is that a
degree of ‘delegate dissonance’ will arise
if people are asked to perform at the wrong times for
them.
Timing is all
(i) Ask delegates in advance to self-categorise themselves
as larks or owls, and to identify the degree of extremeness
that they feel applies. (A questionnaire could invite
responses to their preferred times for waking up, eating,
working, exercising, relaxing etc.). More radically,
a psychometric test could be used.
(ii) Stretch the conference day by inviting larks to
early morning or breakfast seminars, and by choosing
owls for after-dinner brainstorming. Two-phase events
may become possible, with overlaps.
(iii) Don’t risk diluting the effect of your
key-note speaker by inviting him or her to address a
preponderance of owls too early in the proceedings,
or a surfeit of larks too late in the day.
(iv) Socialising times of the day should not be the
extremes: too early (i.e. over breakfast) won’t
suit the owls; nor will after-dinner nightcaps appeal
to larks.
(v) The more natural daylight there is in a conference
room the more this will help stretch the day, both for
larks and owls
(vi) Owls may need more (and stronger) coffee in the
mornings than larks.
(vii) Afternoon or early evening exercise (a brisk
walk outside the venue?) will stretch the productivity
of the day for a lark. Conversely, an owl will benefit
from an early morning constitutional.
(viii) The idea of a power nap in the afternoon for
larks may boost their staying-up power for an important
evening function. In similar vein, care should be taken
to shoo owls off to bed well before the small hours.
(ix) Make sure that the hotel has a noise-reduction
strategy (revellers etc.) from 11pm, or else larks will
suffer. Likewise, early morning noises (dustbinmen)
can harm an owl…
(x) Not least, be sensitive to these hard-wired differences
between people. Delegates spark at different times …
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