In any group, in any industry, at any time, all we have to do is whisper the word, “meeting,” to elicit a major groan, rolling eyes, and sighs. It’s no wonder. When I ask people what percentage of their time is wasted in meetings, the answer is always at least 50 percent and often far higher.
It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out how much that costs our organizations in lost productivity, lost engagement, and morale. People truly hate most meetings for good reasons. Most meetings are poorly planned and poorly executed; they are a significant waste of time and money.
How much money, you might ask? That’s easy to estimate. Just add up and average the salaries in the room, then divide by 2,080 (52 weeks x 40 hours a week) to establish an average hourly rate and then multiply that by 2 because it costs about twice as much to have a meeting as the cost of the people in the room for the hour or more they are there. Remember, there is travel time, the cost of the facility, admin time, prep time, follow-up time, and wasted productivity unless the meeting creates value of one kind or another.
Might as well put hundred dollar bills on the floor and burn them, eh?
Meeting-Itis Is Contagious
That said, I actually love meetings! I love them WHEN they produce something useful. And when they don’t, I stop going. I gave up going to or having useless meetings nearly 20 years ago. Indeed, there are great meetings and important ones I’d never want to miss. People need to congregate and exchanges things. We need to network, learn, collaborate, decide, discuss, chew on ideas, mind-meld, teambuild, brainstorm, and have fun together. There are plenty of fabulous reasons why people should have meetings, gatherings, and get-togethers.
Clearly, we do have a serious meeting epidemic in this country. Adding the good ones and bad ones together equals a lot of meetings. It’s a bit like global warming: It creeps up on you, and before you know it, your life is one big meeting desert or tsunami or both, at the same time, in the same meeting.
The meeting-itis epidemic continues to grow and spread. You’d think it was contagious. Maybe it is. The way meetings are run in your organization is a result of your internal cultural norms and choices. These come directly from the skill or lack of skill of those leading and facilitating the meetings. We pass it on by demonstrating every day “how we do things here.” Therefore, every new person coming into your system is subject to and generally conforms to the same meeting norms as everyone around them. It becomes cultural atmosphere we all breathe. You bet it’s contagious.
Ask yourself, what meeting virus are you passing around your organization, starting with your team? Is it healthy and productive or unhealthy and unproductive?
E-mail didn’t fix it. In fact, e-mail overuse and abuse can contribute to bad meetings. Whiz-bang meeting software didn’t fix it. Today, you can just throw on a T-shirt, sit at your computer, and be in a meeting with virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime. Now, even if you are commuting, you’re more likely to be on a call that’s a…meeting! How’s that working for you?
5 Questions You Need to Ask
Here are 5 “Do we really need a meeting?” questions you should answer before any meeting.
- Why are we having this meeting; what is the goal; what are the deliverables?
- Whose meeting is it and who is leading it?
- What kind of a meeting do we need to have (i.e., in person, on the phone, virtual, standing up, off-site, formal, informal, etc.)?
- Who should be there? Why?
- What are our meeting norms, and do I like them? If not, why am I going to this meeting and/or what am I going to do to change it?
If you would like to CURE the “meeting-it is” in your life, first answer those five questions and then consider a different approach. As a leader, like it or not, you are a steward of your organization’s resources; it’s your job to make sure your time and your staff time is not wasted. When it is, you lose money. Period. That money is gone forever. It cannot be recovered, reinvented, restored. It’s gone. Therefore, it’s a good idea for every leader to pay attention to the quality and quantity of his or her meetings.
Your PAL
The prevention of bad meetings and the purposeful creation of great meetings is the leader’s responsibility. Here are the three big things to consider: Planning, Agenda, and Logistics (PAL)
PLANNING:
- What are the objectives and the shared purpose for this meeting?
- How will you accomplish your objectives?
- Who will be there and are they the right people for the objectives and agenda?
AGENDA:
Every item on your agenda should have one of or a combination of these three purposes:
- No more than 20 percent of any meeting should be spent on information sharing—there are plenty of other and cheaper ways to share information other than meeting time.
- This means truly hearing from the attendees, getting their input and ideas. Have a method to do that well to gather all the wisdom in the room.
- Use best practices and have or create decision-making protocols so they can be made and made well.
LOGISTICS:
This includes all the activities and techniques used to facilitate group dynamics and the meeting’s flow. You want your plan and your agenda to work. There are a number of logistics to consider, including space and time, checking in and wrapping up, ground rules, food, breaks, activities, humor, and technology. These are not small matters when you consider how much you are investing in the meeting.
If you do nothing else, at least take the time to ask yourself the first five questions and then decide how you can ensure your meetings aren’t the source of groans, eye rolling, and sighs in your organization.
Leadership authority Roxi Bahar Hewertson, CEO of Highland Consulting Group, Inc. and AskRoxi.com, brings more than three decades of practical experience in the worlds of business, higher education, and nonprofits. She is an entrepreneur, consultant, speaker, and author of “Lead Like it Matters…Because it Does” (McGraw-Hill October 2014), which provides leaders with a step-by-step roadmap and practical tools to achieve great results.
