The modern workplace is undergoing significant shifts and adaptations. Microsoft recently published their 2025 Work Trend Index Report. Their biggest prediction for 2025 is the birth of the “Frontier Firm”, organizations powered by intelligence on tap, human-agent teams, and a new role for all of us to play: “agent boss”.

Are you prepared to be an ‘Agent Boss’? Are you ready to manage a team of agents? If you ask me, it sounds cool, weird, and exciting all at the same time.

Microsoft further highlights that intelligence, formerly the most valuable and limited asset in business, is changing. It’s now possible to access augmented intelligence on demand. For example, two-thirds of radiology departments now utilize machine learning and deep learning to interpret and analyze medical imaging like X-rays and CT scans. Banks flag potential fraud by detecting unusual transaction patterns. Online shopping now analyzes your purchase history and real-time behavior to provide highly personalized recommendations (35% of Amazon’s total sales are from AI-driven recommendations!). Machine sensors analyze performance, proactively identifying maintenance recommendations.

But even as the capabilities of AI increase, I propose that human-centered skills like collaboration, decision making, empathy, and leadership will also rise in importance. The ability to plan useful meetings with people and facilitate outcome driven conversations is critical regardless of where your company is on the tech-adoption spectrum.

Done poorly, meetings can pose major costs to employee engagement, efficiency, and productivity. At the heart of the meeting challenge lies a common oversight: the failure to distinguish between the “what” of a discussion and the “how” it unfolds. Organizations implementing new AI tools face similar challenges. Without slowing down, considering, and designing the process, you risk adding technology that adds little value, is too expensive, or solves the wrong problem.

IA founder David Straus observed many years ago that problem-solving meetings were largely ineffective because individuals did not differentiate between process and content. By separating the “what” (the content) from the “how” (the process), people are liberated to fully engage in the “what”. Potential conflicts are then seen as issues of process rather than personal disagreements. But how do you create meetings that work?

The solution to this paradox lies in first cultivating a greater sense of process awareness, or as David framed it “process eyes”. It is like a pair of eyeglasses you can put on, allowing one to see the invisible flow of the group interaction.

At IA this is transferred to others through The Interaction Method™ framework. This framework is a meta-model which creates specific behavior changes and shared language that result in increased cross-functional collaboration, strategic alignment, employee engagement, and accountability.

This involves demonstrating, teaching, and practicing four distinct elements:

1. Collaborative Attitude: the mindset to act in a cooperative manner
2. Strategic Thinking: the mental processes of choosing a practical course of action to achieve our desired results
3. Facilitative Behaviors: the practical tools, techniques, and actions that help people build understanding and agreement
4. Shared Responsibility: the principle that everyone can plan an active and positive role in producing results that matter

How to Refine Your “Process Eyes”

One way the refine your own process eyes is to utilize each element of The Interaction Method™ as an essential lens. Here’s how:

Shared Responsibility
Observe who is actively participating, who is adding energy, who appears disengaged, and how different roles are being enacted. Is the scribe taking notes? Is anyone keeping track of time?

Collaborative Attitude:
Observe the level of active listening, if different perspectives are surfaced, if ground rules are followed, the willingness to work together, and if the environment is safe enough to contribute. Do people feel the ability to productively disagree?

Strategic Thinking:
Observe if the right people were invited, if the agenda is clear, if there are desired outcomes. Was any preparation work conveyed? Are we using a clear framework or process for people to organize their thoughts? Did we write down and assign out action items? Are we efficient with our time?

Facilitative Behaviors:
Observe if everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Is the facilitator keeping the group focused on one topic at a time? Are process agreements being conveyed and enforced?

At your next meeting, try on your ‘process eyes’. What do you observe? What’s happening in the process? What specific things would make it better?

In conclusion, the starting point to transforming your meetings into productive interactions begins with honing your process eyes. Over time, you’ll gain the insights to ‘see’ the invisible flow of the group interaction. Finally, your personal confidence will increase, allowing you to suggest upgrades and take personal action.