Are You Attending Too Many Meetings?
Are they a waste of time with no real purpose and a few decisions actually come out of them?
Unfortunately that is actually the case in many organisations. If run poorly, meetings can slow things down, they are too long and can make straight-forward issues complicated and, quite often, the perfect platform for talkative people. What’s the situation with meetings in your organistion? if your organisation is like many others then most of the meetings are a waste of time. Time management experts determined that 53% of all time spent in meetings is wasted which is a scary number considering that most businesspeople spend at least 25% of their working hours in meetings. Poorly run meetings can be disastrous so let’s first look at reasons why meetings go wrong.
Too many meetings? – Are you attending too many meetings? A lot of time spent discussing topics that may or may not be important. It’s no surprise that many people think “how am I supposed to get my job done with all these meetings ?”
Do they start and end on time? – Meetings should start and end on time. Unfortunately, that is not the case with many meetings where the tendency is to wait for those who show up late. This is a complete waste of time for everyone attending the meeting. “DON’T PUNISH THE PUNCTUAL”
“What are WE doing here ?” – Unfortunately most meetings do not have a clear agenda that is circulated to all attendees in advance. When the meeting has no clear agenda so many things can throw it off track like, personal agendas or wandering off topic. Good agendas help the team get from the beginning to the end with a clear focus on the meeting objective.
“What am I doing here ?” – Some people simply come to the meeting unprepared or even don’t know (or not sure why) they are attending this meeting. That means a lot of time will be wasted getting everyone up to speed. That’s why having a complete agenda prepared in advanced and circulated to all people involved in the meeting is essential to make sure everyone knows what’s the purpose of the meeting and what is, their role in the meeting and also, prompts people to come prepared.
A platform for talkative people? – There’s usually one in each meeting! they like to talk and finally they have an audience. It’s their time to be the star of the show, they dominate the meeting and make their point as loudly and as often possible. The problem is that these individuals often intimidate others attending the meeting and waste a lot of time.
If you suffer from any of the above it is a tragedy because, if run properly, meetings can be a great way to communicate face to face with groups, to build teams and improve the quality of decisions, drawing from a variety of different experiences, not to mention simply getting to know people better.