“A noon meeting? Ugh.”
When I saw the Outlook invite for a staff meeting at 12 p.m., I was not happy. I don’t exactly love meetings to begin with, so to have one during lunch — the time I spent escaping my job by sitting on a bench and reading — seemed just cruel. But then I found out my manager was ordering pizza, and thought, “Maybe this won’t be so bad.”
As it turned out, there was a catch.
When my coworkers and I walked into the conference room, we grabbed some plates and opened the boxes, thinking the pizza was up for grabs. It wasn’t — at least not until after the meeting.
Huh?!
We were told we had to sit through a few presentations before we could satisfy our hunger. And until then, the pizza boxes would remain on the conference table, unopened. The smell of cheese would linger in the room, mocking us as we listened to a pitch for a CME course on psoriasis. When we asked another one of the managers why on earth we were being tortured like this, she simply said, “No one’s going to pay attention if they’re eating.”
Wrong, I argued. No one is going to listen if he is being treated like a horse with a carrot dangling in front of him — or like a child who can’t have a cookie until she eats her peas. While I can understand wanting to have your staff’s undivided attention, there are far better ways to make that happen.
What I experienced a few years ago is an excellent example of how not to run a successful meeting. And while that may have been a bit extreme, it’s indicative of a trend we’re seeing across the business world of meetings that simply aren’t productive.
A survey of 30,000 employees at a technology company found that only 54 percent of the time spent in meetings was deemed time well spent, with respondents cited unclear meeting purpose, unnecessary standing meetings, overly long meetings, and unnecessary attendees as reasons for unproductive meetings.
“Too many people get together for meetings without really knowing why, simply because it was on their weekly schedules,” stated Jeff Denneen, a partner at Bain & Company and an advocate for killing the weekly meeting entirely. “What’s less obvious to people is the ripple effect those unproductive meetings have on an organization, especially when top executives meet.”
Between time spent not focusing on key priorities and time spent preparing, Denneen argues that standing meetings can be downright detrimental to a staff’s productivity, and that they often do more harm than good. After all, there’s a reason they call it death by meeting.
But meetings don’t have to be fatal, and they don’t have be a waste of time. A meeting or huddle can increase efficiency by getting people on the same page, facilitating the exchange of ideas, and making important decisions. If it is done right. As someone who has sat through countless meetings, I have a few suggestions for turning an obligatory time-waster into a productive get-together.
- Have an objective. People should know why they are meeting and what you’re looking to get out of it.
- Know when a meeting is required, and when a huddle will suffice. Sometimes a quick huddle is all you need.
- Be cognizant of timing. If you’re dealing with deadlines, don’t have meetings right before them. If you do, you won’t have anyone’s full attention.
- Invite only those who absolutely need to be there. And remember the Rule of 7, according to Denneen, which states that every attendee over a total of 7 reduces the likelihood of making a good, quick, executable decision by 10 percent.
- Don’t be afraid to dismiss people during the meeting who need to tend to other priorities. Trust me, they’ll thank you.
And finally,
- You can bring food — if you plan to let people eat it.
Share Your Thoughts
You must be logged in to post a comment.