Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different mental models of meeting goals affect meeting effectiveness and proposes design considerations for supporting intentionality in meeting technologies.

Contribution

It identifies contrasting mental models of meeting goals and explores their impact, providing insights for designing systems that enhance meeting effectiveness through intentionality.

Findings

Two mental models: meetings as a means to an end and as an end in themselves

Misalignment around goals causes tension between organizers and attendees

Design implications for supporting intentionality and reducing tension in meetings

Abstract

Ineffective meetings due to unclear goals are major obstacles to productivity, yet support for intentionality is surprisingly scant in our meeting and allied workflow technologies. To design for intentionality, we need to understand workers' attitudes and practices around goals. We interviewed 21 employees of a global technology company and identified contrasting mental models of meeting goals: meetings as a means to an end, and meetings as an end in themselves. We explore how these mental models impact how meeting goals arise, goal prioritization, obstacles to considering goals, and how lack of alignment around goals may create tension between organizers and attendees. We highlight the challenges in balancing preparation, constraining scope, and clear outcomes, with the need for intentional adaptability and discovery in meetings. Our findings have implications for designing systems which increase effectiveness in meetings by catalyzing intentionality and reducing tension in the organisation of meetings.