The phrase "too many meetings" resonates widely among employees in the corporate sphere. This pervasive sentiment clashes with the pressing need for executives to boost productivity, prompting a reevaluation of the meeting culture in many organizations. Consider these startling statistics:
- Organizations devote an estimated 15% of their time to meetings.
- A staggering 71% of these meetings are deemed unproductive by participants.
- The average employee spends around 4.5 hours in meetings weekly, with 30% of employees reporting over 5 hours.
- The higher one climbs the corporate ladder, the more meetings one participates in : CEOs can spend up to 72% of their time in meetings, upper management about half, and middle management around 35%.
Yet, the irony lies in the simultaneous complaints of employees about insufficient alignment and communication among colleagues, a perceived disconnect with management, and a lack of bottom-up involvement. These issues are often addressed by convening more meetings. This paradox seems to be an unwinnable battle in many companies.
The key to unraveling this paradox lies not in the quantity but in the quality of these meetings. An?effective meeting?can serve as a powerful catalyst for organizational success and employee motivation. Yet, the reality is that many meetings miss the mark of being productive. Initiatives to foster more effective meetings often result in temporary measures and actions, which quickly slip back into old habits. This suggests that a long-term transformation, sponsored by top management (and with top management leading by example), may be necessary to effect lasting change.
Several prominent tech leaders have already taken innovative steps to address this issue, advocating for a shift in meeting culture:
- Jeff Bezos?of?Amazon?has banned PowerPoint from meetings in favor of six-page memos (with real sentences), insisting on a collective reading at the start of meetings to ensure alignment and comprehension. This ensures that participants do not just claim to have read the memo without actually doing so.
- Jack Dorsey, the famous leader of both?Twitter?(in the past) and?Square, adopts a similar approach, dedicating the initial minutes of meetings to silent reading from a shared (Google) document.
- Elon Musk?came up with his famous 6 rules for productivity. These includethe need to avoid large and frequent (recurring) meetings (unless for temporary urgent matters)the mandate (even obligation) for everyone to leave a meeting if it is obvious they are not adding valueavoiding acronyms or jargon, as anything that requires an explanation inhibits communicationthe mandate to ignore the chain of command. This to ensure that communication travels via the shortest path necessary to get the job done.using common sense at any moment
- Shopify?CEO Tobi Lutke announced that employees are encouraged to decline non-essential meetings. Additionally the company cancelled all recurring meetings with more than two people and put a strict ban on meetings being held on Wednesdays.
- Google?and?Asana?have experimented with meeting-free periods to encourage autonomous work. E.g. Asana imposed a company-wide ban on meetings on Wednesdays.
- Zapier?explores the concept of designated no-meeting time slots to foster productivity and focus.
- Jurgen Ingels, co-founder of Belgian Fintech?Clear2Pay, describes in his book '50 Lessons for Entrepreneurs' how he installed a clock in meeting rooms that showed the total cost of the meeting, based on the time spent and the number of participants involved. The idea was to make people more conscious of the enormous cost of meetings, especially when a large number of participants are involved.
All these approaches underline a universal truth:?meetings are costly, both in terms of time and resources. If you consider a weighted cost of an employee at 500 euros per day, a one-hour meeting with 6 people has a total cost of 375 euros, which shows the need for every meeting to be productive.
Effective meetings?are therefore key to a successful organization. A practical?framework?for holding effective meetings is the implementation of the "5Ps":
- Purpose: Define a clear and compelling reason for the meeting. In other words, evaluate the necessity of the meeting (is it really needed?) and check if alternative communication methods cannot achieve the same objectives more efficiently (e.g. use of asynchronous tools like Google Docs, Teams or Slack to facilitate ongoing collaboration without the need for synchronous meetings or simply sending out a general communication via email). Critical here is to weigh up the meeting cost against the anticipated value it will add.
- Participants: Carefully select attendees who can create added-value. This means inviting only essential participants to maintain focus and efficiency. Foster also an environment where free thought and speech are encouraged, thus establishing a context in which every participant can contribute.
- Process: Define a clear process for the meeting and plan the meeting with precision. This means clearly defining the meeting’s purpose and structure, agenda, time allocations and expected outcomes. Also designate a meeting leader or moderator to guide the discussions, ensure inclusivity, and maintain adherence to the agenda. At the start of the meeting reiterate the meeting objectives and define again who’s leading the meeting and who’s taking the notes. The meeting leader should also not lose sight of what the meeting is there to achieve. This means that topics not linked to the agenda and/or meeting objectives, should be written down and parked for when time allows (or for another meeting).
- Payoff: Set specific objectives to achieve by the meeting’s conclusion and conclude the meeting with a clear summary of main meeting conclusions and an action plan, assigning tasks and deadlines to translate the discussion into tangible outcomes.
- Preparation: Ensure all participants are adequately prepared to contribute. This means sending out (or publishing) the agenda and any supporting material early so it can be reviewed by the attendees ahead of the meeting.
Apart from this framework, some?practical tips?which can also improve the effectiveness of meetings:
- Explore varied meeting formats, such as stand-up meetings or other formats that can reduce duration and enhance focus. E.g. research shows that stand-up meetings can cut meeting time by a third.
- Avoid meetings with more than 2 hierarchical levels. It can be good to have direct communication between a person and a manager of 2 or more levels higher, but at that moment avoid that all intermediary hierarchical levels are present, as this creates automatic inefficiency and typically bad meetings. As a general rule, organize only meetings with 2 different hierarchical levels, which doesn’t imply that these two levels are directly adjacent in the organizational hierarchy.
- Establish individual and departmental?caps on meeting time?to safeguard productivity. A good practice can be 20% of worktime for non-managers, 30% for middle management and 40% for senior leadership.
- Opt for shorter meetings?- 30 or even 15 minutes - to encourage conciseness and discipline. Typically, meetings will fill the time allocated for them, meaning the more time foreseen for a meeting the longer it will take.
- Adhere strictly to start and end times?to respect participants' schedules and other commitments. The published meeting start time is when the talking starts and not when you expect people to turn up. Late-running meetings should be avoided, as they impact all kinds of other scheduled activities. If the meeting has not produced the desired results at the end of the allocated meeting time, schedule another.
While meetings are an indispensable facet of corporate life, their current execution often leaves much to be desired. By embracing innovative practices and fostering a culture of efficiency, organizations can transform meetings from time-consuming obligations into?valuable opportunities for collaboration and decision-making.
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