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Weve grown to despise meeting culture, and I understand why. Think about the last few meetings youve attended. How many of them felt clear, succinct, like a truly effective use of your time? Ive sat through more meetings than I can countmany of them with half the participants multitasking, cameras on but minds elsewhere. As a certified facilitator who has designed everything from executive offsites to weekly team stand-ups, Ive learned that most meetings fail not because people dont care, but because leaders treat meetings as a necessary evil instead of the expensive, high-stakes collaboration moments they actually are. But what can we do about it? you might lament. Bad meetings are a part of getting work done. While it’s true that meetings are a critical part of doing business, they don’t have to be bad. Here are five of the most common mistakes I see people make when it comes to meetingsand simple fixes you can implement today to start making the most of your meeting time. Mistake 1: You dont start with the end in mind You may think you know what a meeting is for: the title of your meeting explains the purpose or your agenda lays out what you hope to cover. But really, the most important planning step is having a clear vision of the intended outcome of the meeting. Think about what you want people to walk away from each meeting with. Are they coming away with information? Are they supposed to finish having made a decision? Is the goal to simply introduce a topic and tease out which smaller group should convene for more specific next steps? Are they supposed to have a deeper understanding of their peers priorities? When people know where the conversation is supposed to lead, they can both prepare and participate more effectively. Plus, this makes it easy to close the loop with action items related to your objective (another element of successful meetings). Action item: As youre kicking off each agenda item in a meeting, state, out loud, what the outcome youre striving for is. Mistake 2: Youre not timeboxing your agenda Weve all been in meetings where every agenda item seems to take way too long. You tune out, check some emails, and tune back in only to realize that the topic still isnt wrapped up and the third person is now piggybacking on what the first person said without adding any new or necessary information. Unsurprisingly, by the end of the meeting, youve only gotten through two of the six agenda items, leaving the group with a few non-ideal options: schedule an additional meeting, move those points to next week (which further adds to the backlog of agenda topics), or attempt to cover those items asynchronously. Instead, use timeboxing for every item of your agenda. Your intended outcomes should guide your timeboxing. Exploring a controversial decision that will impact the whole organization? Build in more time for discussion. Running through updates that don’t require much input? Keep those timeboxes tight. And no need to get ridiculous here: If you have three administrative topics at the beginning, you can batch them into a five-minute admin section instead of putting one minute next to each. When you hit that time mark (most video conferencing systems now have built-in timers you can use), you dont have to stop immediately. Instead, do a check-in to see whether you need to continue. I often use a quick thumbs pollthumbs up means people want more time on the topic, thumbs down means they’re ready to move on, thumbs sideways means they’re neutral. If most people are ready to move forward, capture the action item and keep going. If you’re getting mostly thumbs up, set a new timebox and check in again when it expires. And if people are slow to respond or give you sideways thumbs? They’ve probably checked out. Action item: Add timeboxes to every agenda item in your next meeting, and actually check in when you hit them. Mistake 3: Youre not being exclusive enough Leaders often invite a core group of required attendees to a meeting, then tack on everyone else as optional just in case they might find value in some small portion of the discussion, or to avoid anyone feeling left out. You think you’re being inclusive, but what you’re actually doing is cluttering people’s calendars with unnecessary events they feel pressured to attend. Sure, the last five “optional” meetings didn’t yield anything useful for them, but maybe this one will be different, right? Do everyone a favor: Stop inviting optional attendees. And if you’re marked as optional on a meeting that consistently provides no value, stop going. There are better ways to stay transparent without wasting anyone’s time. Use an AI notetaker to generate a summary and action items that non-attendees can review quickly. Have someone post key takeaways afterward, especially decisions or information that affects people outside the room. Or invite specific people for specific portions of the meeting when their input is actually needed. Action item: Audit your upcoming meetings and remove all optional attendees, either making them required or taking them off the invite entirely. Mistake 4: You dont do a meeting audit often enough Finally, with the above implemented, its important to keep yourself honest and regularly assess whether the meetings on your calendar are a valuable use of your time. A simple question I like to ask myself as I consider my upcoming meetings is: If this meeting was taken off the calendar, what would the meeting attendees miss out on? How would it hinder their ability to do their day-to-day roles and responsibilities? The answer can make it clear which meetings can be removed or restructured. I also think its valuable for meeting facilitators to do a quick gut check at the end of each meeting, asking yourself: Did we make any decisions? Do people know what to do next? Did everyone participate in some way? Did everyone walk away with some benefit? If your meetings arent reaching their intended outcomes, or you dont know what those intended outcomes are, it might be time to revisit the cadence, attendees, and style of the meeting (or consider if it should be a meeting at all). Action item: Schedule 30 minutes this week to audit all your recurring meetings using the questions above, and cancel or restructure at least one.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its little surprise that a gold-medal-winning Olympic skier comes from a family that loves the snow, but slopestyle champion Alex Halls mom and dad might love it more than most. The pair met on the slopes, Hall told Fast Company, and essentially raised him and his brother on skis. That didnt necessarily mean hed be good at it. But luckily, Hallwho took home silver last month at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and gold in Beijing in 2022is better than good. And thats a fortunate thing, because the amateur-to-professional athlete pipeline is already narrow, and most pro careers dry up as athletes move into their 30s. Hall isnt too sure what his future in the sport will look likealthough at 27, he definitely has the potential to show up at the 2030 Games in the French Alps. Like many high achievers, that question of whats next? can feel pervasive, not to mention daunting. Its an easy trap to fall into: to start thinking about the next project or success after youve just finished the last one. But Hall believes there’s something that will influence his post-Olympics career: his hobbies and interests outside of skiing. I’ve done a couple of internships with businesses and find it fairly interesting, Hall said. But I think right now at this pointwhere I’m at in my life nowit’s hard to really be 100% committed to something like that. It’s hard to envision myself doing that. As a person, you change a lot, he continued. And I think when the time comes where I’m competing less or skiing less, I think I’ll have changed enough to where I’ll have something else that I really want to do for a profession or in life. And I have plenty of hobbies. So I’m sure I’ll never run out of hobbies, but it just depends professionally, you know, what will come next. In addition to a variety of other sports interests, Hall also spends his time surfing and exploring video production. Though theres plenty of cautionary advice out there against turning hobbies into a career, theres also proof that doing so can be enormously rewarding. A 2025 study by the International Journal of Research in Marketing interviewed snowsport instructors in New Zealand, Japan, and Canada who left standard jobs to pursue their hobbies-turned-careers over a 10-year span of time. Though they encountered plenty of challenges, including financial insecurity and needing a lot of training, most respondents reported experiencing significant personal growth and fulfillment. Hall could also transition from skiing to creating action videos for brands and sponsors, like many Olympians havesomething he said hed love to focus a little more on when I have a little more time and I don’t have to dedicate so much of my time to the competing stuff. Hes not the only recent Olympian who takes a refreshingly different approach to success. Alysa Liu, who won gold in womens individual figure skating in Milan, had actually quit the sport to focus on being a normal teen before picking it back up and crushing it last month on the ice. Hall was 10 when he found out he might be good at freestyle skiing, despite not really knowing thats what the sport was called. We had a trampoline in our backyard, so I started doing some flips and stuff on the trampoline, Hall said. But when I was 10, I tried my first flip on skis just kind of randomly. We built a little jump off to the side of a ski run, and there was some fresh snow . . . so soft. And I was with a couple of my friends, and I just kind of randomly tried it and ended up landing it within a couple of tries. And then my love for the sport kind of just . . . was there. It may be that kind of openness to serendipity that defines the next chapter of his story, or of anyones after theyve achieved a high amount of success. Hall is still going strong nearly two decades later. As for what happens during the 2030 Winter Olympic Games (and beyond)the future is in the snow.
Category:
E-Commerce
Retail has always evolved around a central promise. First it was price and scale. Then convenience and speed. More recently, brand and experience took the lead. Now another shift is underway, one that many companies still treat as secondary. The next competitive advantage in retail is designing for real life. That means designing for the full range of human ability, attention, mobility, and circumstance. Not as a compliance exercise. Not as a niche offering. But as a smarter, more complete version of customer experience. Accessibility is often misunderstood as a feature aimed at a small group of people. In reality, it is a systems-level discipline. It asks a simple question: Where does friction accumulate across the journey, and who gets left behind because of it? Brick and mortar retail is a chain of moments. Parking. Entry. Navigation. Discovery. Reading labels. Comparing options. Carrying purchases. Checking out. Opening packaging. Setting up at home. If friction appears in any one of those moments, the chain weakens. Shoppers may not articulate why they abandon a purchase or fail to return to the store. They simply feel that the experience was harder than it needed to be. The hidden truth is that most friction is ordinary. It is the parent steering a stroller while scanning shelves. The older adult who shops in shorter trips because standing too long causes fatigue. The caregiver juggling time, lists, and another persons needs. The shopper straining to read small type under glare. The customer trying to hear an associate over loud music. These are not edge cases. They are daily realities. When retailers design with those realities in mind, they are not designing for special needs. They are designing for how people actually live. What does that look like in practice? Start with packaging. It is one of the few retail touchpoints that crosses the entire journey, from shelf to home. Clearer typography and stronger contrast reduce eye strain. Intuitive information hierarchy lowers cognitive load. Opening mechanisms that require less dexterity reduce frustration before the product is even used. When packaging is confusing or physically difficult, the brand relationship begins with resistance. When it is intuitive, confidence builds immediately. Merchandising and layout send equally powerful signals. Aisles that comfortably accommodate mobility devices, carts, and strollers reduce anxiety and improve flow for everyone. Product placement that considers customers range of reach makes browsing less physically demanding. Predictable layouts and consistent signage shorten decision time and reduce fatigue. None of these changes diminish aesthetic ambition. In fact, clarity often strengthens it. Environments that feel calm and legible tend to feel more sophisticated as well. Lighting and acoustics are another overlooked layer. Excessive glare can make labels unreadable. High ambient noise can discourage conversation and increase stress. Thoughtful lighting and sound design help customers compare options accurately and interact with staff more easily. Seating and rest points extend stamina, particularly in larger stores. These details rarely make headlines, yet they directly influence how long someone stays and how confident they feel while shopping. Digital touchpoints are now inseparable from physical retail. Search interfaces, pickup systems, and returns processes must work in conditions of distraction and time pressure. They must be usable by customers with low vision or hearing differences. The best omnichannel experiences are not complex. They are clear, consistent, and forgiving. They anticipate real-world interruptions and varied abilities. When shopping feels easier, customers come back When retailers approach accessibility as a full-system design challenge, the business impact follows naturally. Reducing friction improves conversion because fewer customers stall or abandon the journey. Clearer information reduces returns and customer service strain. Better wayfinding reduces reliance on staff for basic navigation. More comfortable environments encourage longer visits and greater exploration. The loyalty effect may be even stronger. When people find a store that makes shopping feel easier, safer, and more dignified, they come back. They recommend it. They build trust in the assortment. The experience signals that the retailer understands real life, not an idealized version of it. There is also a cultural dimension to this shift. Populations are aging. Caregiving responsibilities are increasing. Households are more multigenerational. Expectations around inclusion are rising. Retail is one of the most tangible spaces where values become visible. Shoppers do not experience a brands commitments in a mission statement. They experience them in aisles, at checkout, and at home. Importantly, designing for broader access does not mean sacrificing aspiration. Independence is aspirational. Confidence is aspirational. The most compelling retail environments are not the most exclusive ones. They are the ones that allow more people to move through them with ease and dignity. Final thoughts For years, differentiation strategies have centered on limited drops, collaborations, and spectacle. Those tactics can generate attention, but they are often temporary. Designing for real life is durable. It compounds over time because it strengthens every link in the experience chain. The next era of retail will not be defined solely by speed or novelty. It will be defined by intelligence. The retailers that study friction, understand changing human needs, and design environments that work beautifully across a spectrum of abilities will outperform those who optimize for a narrow idea of the average customer. Designing for more people is not a charitable gesture. It is a strategic evolution. In Retail 3.0, inclusion is not an add-on. It is the foundation of better design and better business. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
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