Meetings have a bad reputation and bad meetings deserve that reputation.
And they are on the rise too.
The pre-eminent scholar on improving meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg, highlights many studies and statistics in his excellent book “The Surprising Science of Meetings – How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance”.
Here’s a taster:
- In 1976 there were approximately 11 million meetings per day in the US.
- In 2019 that number had increased to roughly 55 million meetings per day
- In 2005 Microsoft surveyed close to 40,000 people about productivity and work related practices. 69% globally and 71 percent of workers in the US indicated meetings were not productive.
- In 2012 Salary.com conducted a survey that revealed “too many meetings” was the number one time-waster at the office.
- Xerox estimated the cost of meetings in their 24,000 person manufacturing and development unit at $100.4 million annually
- Other studies have suggested 15 percent of personnel budget is spent on meeting time.
Many are US based figures and I think it’s safe to assume there will be some correlation with other workplaces across the globe.
Another study by professors from LSE, Harvard and Columbia Universities looking at CEOs and Corporate Leaders in India found that 60% of CEO time and 56% of corporate leaders working hours were spent in meetings.
Given the enormous investment of time, money and energy in meetings, it’s worth doing all we can to ensure they are effective.
My colleague John Bull’s research also identifies ‘Effective Meetings’ as one of the 6 Building Blocks of High Performing Teams and I’m noticing increasing interest from a range of organisations as to how we improve them.
Here’s five thoughts on how:
1. Eliminate Zombies
I’m sure many of us have felt like zombies in meetings! And this is about reviewing your (Zombie) meetings and deciding which are fit for purpose. Some meetings are standing meetings that are long past their sell by date. It’s worth checking with participants what value they are taking from them. Maybe they need a transfusion, or eliminating!
2. Check your reflexes
When we feel there is something to discuss our reflex action is often to schedule a meeting. Too often. Can we make progress in another way? A quick call perhaps or a poll to canvas opinion…
There are some great online tools to check and challenge our thinking.
Here’s one that generates some amusing memes – it raises options and a smile:
https://shoulditbeameeting.com/#/
3. Allocate Roles – three of them
- A chair or facilitator role is a must for effective meetings; keeping discussion focused and to time.
- The Note Taker should be empowered to intervene, clarify outcomes and push for accountability. The Note Taker role is not a passive one.
- Topic leads, introduce topics for discussion and provide expert insight and context.
4. Build a useful Agenda
A keystone for effective meetings these should be simple, timely and comprehensive. There’s plenty to say and I’ll just make one point. It’s important and a simple one to action. For each agenda point make it clear what specifically you want to take away from the meeting. Any Coaches reading this will recognise a simple goal setting question here and I have rarely seen it applied in organisational meetings.
5. Be flexible
Does everyone need to be there all of the time? I was in a meeting today where a colleague asked if she needed to stay for the last agenda item. Hooray!! And thank you! and no you don’t!
For any number of reasons we outstay our usefulness in a meeting, or the meeting outlives its usefulness to us! Let’s not do that. Let’s clearly communicate when people need to be there and when they don’t. We can give the option to stay if they’re interested and feel they can contribute on certain topics, and no-one should feel they need to hang around.
On this point Nina Sunday introduced me to the concept of ‘Peeling Away’. This is phased attendance with everybody at the start, and then people peel away when the topic is no longer relevant or they are not required. I think it’s simple and powerful.
