Meetings or Calendar Killers?

When I receive a meeting invitation in my email and read the details on my calendar tool, I either inwardly groan, or I get excited. That's the difference between a meeting I'm prepared for and a meeting that feels like it could be a waste of my valuable time.

Before you judge me for thinking unkind thoughts about my colleagues, you should know that data supports my argument:

Meetings collectively take up around 15% of an organisation's time, and it's projected that poorly-managed meetings had a cost almost half a trillion dollars in productivity loss in the U.S. and the U.K. alone -- and that's just 2019 (pre COVID-19).

The COVID-19 pandemic forever changed the way we communicate, collaborate and conduct work meetings.?And, how much time we spend doing so.

A large amount of researches shows that professionals attended more meetings in 2020.?On average, meetings were shorter and mostly focused on:

• Maintaining team's connections and?
• One-on-one check-ins.

Namely, there are?12.9% more meetings per person?and?13.5% more attendees per meeting.

However:?

• The average length of meetings has been reduced by 20.1%
• People spend 11.5% less time in meetings post lockdown?
• Workdays are longer by 8.2% (or 48.5 minutes)

Doodle has had similar insights.?

In their 2021 state of meetings report, they found that 2020 was the year when there were more meetings focused on socializing:

• 1:1s increased by 18%
• Check-ins and team socialization meetings jumped by 10%
• Around 50% of these meetings were recurring

A sudden shift to remote work gave rise to an increase in meeting time. Organizations started scheduling more meetings to recreate the in-person communication people were used to in the office.?

Although people were attending more meetings, they had approximately more time to socialize and recharge — as they had more informal check-ins that were shorter than a year before.?

• As showcased by Microsoft, the overall meeting time increased by 10% in 2020. However, there was also a 22% increase in short meetings (for meetings lasting 30 minutes or less).?

As work from home started becoming the new normal, the meeting time continued to increase.

• On average, professionals now spend more than half of their 40-hour workweek in meetings. This translates into professionals spending 21.5 hours in meetings per week in 2021 — which is 7.3 hours more than in February 2020. Numbers are even worse for 2022.?

Well I have more bad news for you.

The previously mentioned studies and employees found that only 17% of senior managers consider meetings productive:

• 71% consider meetings they attend unproductive?
• 65% report that meetings get in the way of their work??
• 64% say meetings disrupt deep thinking?

Participants in the same survey (62% of them) reported that?unproductive meetings disrupt their regular workflow.

Why are Meetings unproductive?

Several pieces of research investigated the main factors that make meetings unproductive.?For example, professionals surveyed in a previously mentioned Doodle report, cited?poorly organized meetings?as the main issue causing:

• Insufficient time to complete their work (44%)?
• Confusion as a result of vague actions (43%)?
• Decrease in focus on projects (38%)?
• Hindered progress due to irrelevant participants (31%)?
• Client relationships deterioration due to inefficient processes (26%)?

Moreover, 51% of professionals cite attending?irrelevant meetings, while 61% of C-suite executives blame a?lack of clear objectives for the general unproductiveness.?Scheduling overload?is another factor worsening meeting productivity.

A lack of meeting feedback?may be another issue hindering meeting productivity, according to the same reports.

Statistics on meeting behavior

One or two people dominate the majority of conversations in meetings, while the biggest meeting challenges are off-topic conversations.?

Meeting insights by Atlassian show some shocking statistics on meeting behavior:?

• 96% of professionals have missed meetings
• 91% of professionals have daydreamed during meetings
• 73% of professionals have multitasked during meetings
• 39% of professionals have slept during meetings

Statistics on how organizations use conference platforms?

Conference Platforms is a fact well established especially after COVID-19.

In fact,?the Fortune Business Insights ?report states the video conferencing market was worth $6.28 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $14.58 billion by 2028.

Fun facts about virtual meetings

Virtual remote meetings have brought entirely new sets of behavior and phrases that were completely unimaginable in the in-office era.?

From children and pets’ appearances to funny backgrounds and filters, virtual work settings humanized how we approach meetings.?

A global 2021 survey by?Zoom ?analyzed some of these interesting facts about virtual meetings:

• Wednesday was the most popular day for virtual meetings (followed by Tuesday, and Thursday)?
• The average virtual call lasted 54 minutes
• The average number of attendees per meeting was 10?
• 68% of people wore casual clothes for meetings
• 71% of respondents have used the phrase “You’re on mute”
• 57% had asked if everyone could see their screen?
• 43% of parents had their children show up during a meeting
• 36% had their pets show up
• 75% of people wave at the end of their meetings

Wrapping up:

Meetings have come a long way from being the biggest waste of time and resources to slowly becoming more focused and efficient collaboration spaces.?

There's nothing worse than sitting through an hour-long meeting that could've been an email?-- especially when your to-do list is never-ending, and you barely end up speaking during the entire discussion. But it doesn't have to be this way.

As result of being a victim of hundreds of meetings as facilitator or attendee, I will offer in this post some tactical suggestions for scheduling, running, and managing meetings that don't waste anyone's time and allow work to get done. Personally, I cannot guarantee your coworkers won't write blog posts or tweets about your meetings, but I can guarantee they'll help you get stuff done with your team.

Successful Meeting Tips

1. Choose the list of attendees carefully (this is a must).
2. Set an agenda and share it before the meeting or within the meeting request.
3. Provide a video meeting link (I shouldn't say that but is a rule for a well organised meeting request).
4. If you are not the one then you have to designate a note-taker and a meeting facilitator.
5. Avoid multitasking at all costs.
6. Start and end the meeting on time.
7. End the meeting with an action plan.
8. Follow-up with documentation, emails, and additional meetings, if needed.

I am pretty sure you can add more bullets on the list above and I would be happy to read those. Whatever turns unproductive meetings (mainly work time spent with no result) to an efficient and productive result, should be promoted to a "must have rule" than just a good habit.