Meetings are inevitable, but sometimes they become extreme. At one time, Ford had meetings to prepare for meetings.
Research published by the MIT Sloan in 2007 expressed that meetings increased in length and frequency since 1960 such that executive employees spend an average of 13 hours more a week on them.
Today, these same people spend over half of their time at work in meetings. It was determined in a 2014 Bain & Co. research that to prepare for a successful meeting, the presenter (or moderator) and his/her collective subordinates spend nearly 43x more time on collecting, organizing and preparing the content than the time spent in the meetings themselves.
“One company’s weekly senior leadership meeting directly consumed 7,000 hours per year for the attendees—but 300,000 hours company-wide among subordinates in preparation and related meetings, the study said.”
The “Stand-Up” meeting, introduced with the Scrum methodology, was created to reduce meeting times. The idea was that with everyone standing up, we would get tired on our feet and want to leave soon after the meeting started. In nearly every stand-up meeting I’ve attended in the past seven years, most, if not all, of the attendees were sitting down and they lasted longer than the 5 to 10 minute suggested time block.
From grandiose annual board meetings to mundane daily stand-ups, meetings have been found to only be effective during 1/3 of their time.
For the most part, I suggest using email, wikis, and discussion technology (like Slack or MS Teams) to disseminate information. In situations where you think the chat would go longer than 2 responses or an email would require more than 5 lines, call for a quick meeting.
We need a balance between long-threaded emails, confusing text chats and drudging group-meets. I don’t have one answer that fits the variety of daily situations, but there are some suggestions from personal experience and the experiences of others that can help.
Here are some that I found noteworthy:
Have a purpose Statement For The Meeting
I have a successful friend who refuses to attend any meeting without one. It must have a time-block, a topic and a goal like: Meeting to discuss the new client website 2-2:15, to make a decision on a WordPress theme.
Prepare for the meeting, even if you only an attendee
If you’re leading the meeting, provide something for the attendees to read or do before the meeting.
If you’re attending the meeting, treat it as a job interview with questions for yourself that you’d like answered. You don’t need to ask them in the meeting because just having them makes you more attentive and aware. Several coworkers have treated meetings this way and I’ve watched every one of them advance their career quickly. I believe there’s a correlation.
Treat each meeting differently
Not all problems are the same. Some are quick one-offs. Others are larger or more heated issues. Adjust the time in the meetings accordingly.
Use an Egg Timer
End every meeting 5 minutes early via an egg-timer. When it goes off, the meeting is over. It’s nobody’s fault – it’s just the rule. If more needs to be discussed then more time is needed to plan the discussion. Take a break and schedule the meeting at least one hour later. This gives people time to prepare.
Penalize Latecomers
Seth Godin suggests that those who come in 2-minutes later than the last person, after the meeting’s start time, contributes $10 to a collective group fund.
It’s best to work this out with the team’s culture, first. As it can ruffle some feathers telling people how to spend their money.
I had a boss/company owner who would create penalties (such as singing to the group) if they were late.
Prohibit Phones
A Harvard study shows that just having a phone, even face-down, on a table reduces attention and productivity.
Leave Unproductive Meetings Early
Seth Godin also suggests that if you’re not adding value to a meeting, leave.
I suggest you do it politely and with permission. Leaving meetings might be against the corporate culture and can come across as rude. Talk to your supervisor to gather expectations on this.