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Lee E. Meadows, PhD.
Professor of Management –
Authored: Silent Conspiracy
& Silent Suspicion
Necessary meetings should be kept short, to the point
Is this meeting REALLY
necessary? Given the current state of rapid internal change being thrust
upon business organizations, this probably looms as one of the most important
business productivity questions currently begging for a definitive answer.
I had the rare opportunity to be on a three-way phone
conference with two of my sisters.
As noticeable twins, their careers have had similar hurdles
while moving along parallel paths. Both are committed long standing employees
of their chosen organizations, though one chose manufacturing and the other
chose government service, and find themselves survivors of the most recent wave
of downsizing and restructuring efforts. During the course of my listening to
the dialogue (we hadn’t reached a point where my input was required), it became
evident that a common frustration had emerged despite the difference in their
organizations and the geography that separates their interaction (Southeast USA
and
My sisters were both overwhelmed at the growth in number of
meetings they were told to attend and/or facilitate. As mid-level managers,
they were increasingly concerned that meetings were starting to dominate the
way in which they went about their day-to-day managerial activities. My moment
for input arrived when in that mysterious way twins communicate, both said,
“and it’s such a waste of (shareholders/taxpayers) money.” I burrowed through
the brief lapse in conversation and said, “Perhaps I can offer something
useful.” Ignoring the “Is this an offer we can’t refuse?” comment of
geographically safe sister in
A research article entitled Meetings in America: A study
of trends, costs and attitudes toward business travel, teleconferencing, and
their impact on productivity, managers attend an average of 61.8 meetings
per month, over 11 million meetings occurs in the U.S. everyday, over 50
percent of this meeting time is wasted. This translates into about 31 hours per
month or 4 days of wasted time better spent doing something productive. Now, if
the average meeting lasts about an hour and thirty minutes of it is wasted,
then the millions of dollars lost due to unproductive meeting time on an annual
basis by organizations in general is, at the very least, at the appalling
level.
Some of the reasons why meetings are unproductive include,
but are not limited to, daydreaming, bringing other work to the meeting, dozing
off, arriving late or not at all, digressing from the topic or no clarity
around the topic. As a rule, meetings rarely have a positive reputation and
when compounded with the increase in individual workload, the reputation
suffers tenfold when the number of meetings increases and the resulting
inefficiencies that follow. “For what it’s worth,” I said to both of them, “My
observation of this process is that most people don’t know how to run an
effective meeting.” I rode the silent moment until my sister in the Southeast
said, “So, tell us, grasshopper, what makes for an effective meeting?”
I started with the basics:
- Have a clear purpose: Why
is the meeting being held? Remember that people have plenty of other
purposeful things to do.
- Have an agenda: Emphasize
agenda items by starting with the most important to the least important.
Also, indicate if the item is for discussion, information or a decision.
- Have a timeline: Committed
to actually being in a meeting is reinforced if the meeting starts and
ends on time. Also, if 50 percent of the time used in an hour meeting is
wasted, perhaps the meeting itself should only be 30 minutes.
- Have a process: Make
sure that digressions, tangents, ramblings and other misdirected behavior
have a clear shut off valve.
- Have the right people in
attendance: The only relevant people at the meeting should
only be those who can contribute what no one else can. This also includes
those who only have two- five minutes of a contribution. They rarely mind
being asked to attend and leave before the meeting is over.
It has become unmistakably clear that the skill to manage a
meeting is a critical asset to career progression and the only way to achieve
this skill is through training and practice.
I reminded my sisters that as managers in their respective
organizations, they are entrusted with the responsibility to make proper use of
the organizations resources in achieving stated outcomes. Two of the
organizations crucial resources are its time
and its people thereby making it
essential that managers understand that the power to call meeting is just a
critical to the effectiveness of an organization as the power to not call a
meeting.
The conversation ended with us agreeing to discuss the issue
at a later time, but not before scheduling a meeting.