Meetings: The Bane of Business Life
Meetings – they’re a fact of life in business, but I dare say that few of us enjoy them. I dread to think of how many hours’ people waste in dull, boring and unproductive meetings. The problem is that meetings have become akin to a “tradition” in the workplace. Meetings exist because they exist; because they’re the “done thing” regardless of whether we need them.
Anyone who has watched the US version of The Office probably chuckles with a sense of knowing at the absurd number of meetings called by Michael Scott and the reaction of his workers. Fortunately, most of us won’t experience that level of productivity-sapping foolishness, but we’ve all sat there asking ourselves “Is this really necessary right now?”
Who wants to talk about work that needs to be done, when they could instead be doing the work?
Productivity Sapping
Let’s consider the productivity loss that goes into a meeting. It isn’t just the time spent in a conference room but there’s the planning element. Everyone involved must plan for a meeting. The manager(s) must schedule them and everyone else must plan their day around them. That means no sales calls are being made, certain desks may not be staffed, certain departments may not be contactable etc. In a busy environment, emails may stack up over the hour which means that your people will need to play catch-up before getting on with their work. This is hardly ideal and at worst is costing your business money!
Therefore, what we need to start looking at is whether we need these meetings. Some businesses like to have a weekly meeting with no clear agenda. Yet if there’s no clear agenda, are these meetings necessary? If a meeting is merely for the purposes of your people raising non-urgent issues or ideas, then it could just as easily be handled via office email.
Weekly meetings may seem like a way to keep tabs on how your team or business is doing but if there’s nothing new to discuss then they become a rather awkward and uncomfortable waste of time.
Productivity Boosting
A productive meeting needs a clear agenda with a defined desired outcome. It could be that you want to get your team’s input on some new marketing materials, or you want to collaboratively brainstorm on new product or service ideas. These meetings serve a purpose and are helpful. For a meeting to be productive, everyone involved needs to feel able to participate in the discussion. When only one or two people have anything to say, other people will be bored and this could end up being a huge demotivator.
For these meetings, it is imperative that everyone is given a chance to prepare. Too many businesses call meetings with little notice. If you want to do a collaborative brainstorming session, give everyone at least a few days’ notice of what you plan to do. This gives your people a chance to jot down their ideas and for your social media teams to collate relevant information rather than suddenly being forced to hunt through data during the meeting which only adds to the wasted time.
Make Clear Rules
Your business simply must govern meetings by clear rules:
- Keep a clear agenda and stick to it. If other matters are brought up, then make a note and decide later whether that also warrants a meeting or whether there’s another way to deal with it. The agenda of the meeting should be sent to all invitees at the earliest possible opportunity.
- Cellphones and other distractions off. The key to a good, productive meeting is that the meeting only takes the time it needs to take. People taking phone calls delays everybody else.
- In a similar vein, don’t feel forced to stick to the allotted time. If you book a one-hour meeting but there’s nothing left to discuss after thirty minutes, don’t try and stretch things out. I’ve sat through meetings where people have covered the same topic three or four times because they felt the need to see out the clock.
- Only invite those necessary. It sounds simple, but there’s often a sense that a representative from each department needs to be at each meeting. Unless costs are involved, a member of your accounting department would rarely need to be at a social media strategy meeting.
- Have coffee prepared and available. Seriously. People popping out to get another cup of coffee is a huge time-thief during meetings.
- For brainstorming meetings, try and make things more fun. Look at bringing in activities rather than presentations, for example. Make sure you’re engaging your people. A more engaged brain is a more creative and productive brain.
- Ask for feedback. This is crucial. At the end of each meeting, have a quick questionnaire prepared. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to fill in. In this questionnaire, ask people whether they thought it was useful, whether they understood everything and whether there’s anything they wanted to add but didn’t for whatever reason.
- After the meeting, send out a quick email detailing the key points from the meeting. Credit people by name for their input and ensure that a clear call to action is presented for everybody to follow.
Breaking the Habit
Once you’ve broken away from the habit of calling pointless meetings, you’ll soon start to benefit from more productive, involving and engaging meetings that your people look forward to rather than dread.
