Meetings, like death and taxes, are an inevitable fact of business life. Too many meetings, unfortunately, turn out to be a huge waste of time. Instead of meaningful meetings that generate ideas, engagement and commitment, meetings often zap team members’ energy, replacing it with apathy and boredom.
In the work I do, I hear the complaints from people working in a variety of businesses. It’s a constant source of frustration for people. Consider this: Top executives typically spend at least 50% of their time in meetings; somewhat less for middle management.
Meetings become counterproductive when they lose focus, go on too long, dilute authority, diffuse responsibility and delay decisions. Routinely referring a matter to a meeting may satisfy those who are cautious and analytical, but this bad habit frustrates action-oriented risk takers.
To be sure, humans are a social species, and meetings fulfill an innate need. Loyalty increases when we participate in teams and meetings—as long as we perceive them to have purpose, value and meaning.
But, according to Elise Keith, author of Where the Action Is (Second Rise, 2018), less than one in four leaders are trained to run a meeting. On-the-job learning is rarely adequate. How a meeting is conducted reveals much about the leader heading it and may also be an indicator of how the company is run.
What can you do to ensure your meetings are productive and useful—not just socially satisfying?
Is Your Meeting Really Necessary?
As I tell my coaching clients, don’t assume that gathering everyone in a room for a meeting will solve problems and issues. Unless you’re very clear about specific goals, you run the risk of wasting everyone’s time. While it should be obvious, and it may be to you, not everyone is aware of the key issues you want them to bring to your meeting.
When meetings are truly necessary, they will fall into one of four functional categories. Before you schedule that next meeting, use this checklist:
- Informational: If the purpose is purely factual, consider a more streamlined approach to disseminating information.
- Constructive and creative: Meetings are ideal for brainstorming and developing better processes.
- Clarifying: Meetings are often necessary when people are confused about their roles, responsibilities, collaboration and commitments.
- Legislative: Consider a meeting when you need to establish frameworks for rules, routines and procedures.
If you aren’t clear about why you’re meeting, your meeting probably isn’t necessary. What do you think? How do you avoid too many meetings? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
