The Power of Useless Meetings

We've all been there before.

The PowerPoint is going onto slide number....I forgot where we were again.

Karen is asking another question that was already asked, Bob from sales is playing the new game on his phone, while the old timer accountant's head is cocked back in a silent snore in the corner.

Your manager is frantically trying everything they can to explain a simple process, trying to not only stay on topic but stick to the schedule and the carefully worded presentation they planned to have.

This is exactly how you envisioned your day going, right?

So why do we have so many meetings become obsolete almost 5 minutes into the presentation, which then necessitates another meeting to be scheduled as follow-up, and ultimately more time has been wasted (unless you're Stanley from The Office who gets an A+ for all those crosswords done).

Is it because the content isn't exciting?

Is it because the Manager isn't prepared?

Is it because the participants aren't actually, you know, participating?

Think back with me on the meetings that you have had over the last month or so. How many of them do you actually remember? If you can't remember any specific one, that is the problem.

Having a meeting is a crucial part to any organization that wants to move forward (insert "Wikipedia defines 'meeting' as..."). And I believe that meetings are supposed to be productive and should create exponential growth in an organization.

So once again, why is it when we see an email invite on our calendars that we immediately mentally groan and potentially roll our eyes? Because we know that what is perceived to happen won't actually be the case.

Organizations that hold regular meetings, almost daily meetings, run into what I like to call "Meeting Fatigue." As more meetings are scheduled, the less productive a person will actually be in their day-to-day lives and work. The amount of mental capacity that is expended on these meetings is probably what sends most people home everyday wanting to get away from others.

So, what do we do? Do we schedule a meeting now to talk about this problem and work up a PowerPoint with funny memes and posters full of cat's 'hanging in there?' (The sad thing is there will be people who read this and think that that should be the way to go)

Just....stop Karen, please.

But here are some EASY actionable items that you can do TODAY that will give you the most impact on eliminating "Meeting Fatigue" and actually have not so many useless meetings:

• Reoccurring Meetings should NEVER be daily. It creates dependency, procrastination (there always will be tomorrow), and undue stress. I hold one meeting a week with my entire consulting agency for updates, upcoming events, recognition, reporting, and sometimes a quick thought.
• Meetings should NEVER be more than 20-25 minutes. We as humans pay attention on average for about 8 seconds to a new thing, you really think an hour long training is going to be help us? This is the time of faster, more straight to the point meetings. If it is NECESSARY such as safety, wellness, company wide changes, that then gives you permission to extend said meeting to around 40 minutes with maybe 5-10 minutes of Q&A (another topic of how to lead a productive Q&A could be discussed)
• The AMOUNT of people in said meetings should never be more than 7-8 people. Anything more creates the "crowd effect" or where no one answers anything or participates. In smaller groups, you are able to develop trust faster, get to actually know one another, and actually accomplish the purpose of the meeting.

Some of you may be thinking "Well wait a minute, my organization has more people than that, wouldn't that create MORE meetings?" At that point, we have technology and the ability to record meetings for later use to help people learn in their own time.

I would recommend if you have large groups of people, an email might suffice with ability for smaller groups of people (no more than 7-8 remember?) to get together and discuss said topics from the recorded meeting and have them report their findings to their managers.

And to be honest, having large meetings to give out information went obsolete probably when the radio first was invented.

There is of course a TON of other resources that can be researched and found online or via other people but the reality is, we as a people are "Meeting Fatigued." We have enough things usually on our plates and we don't need another thing on it that will take away from our tasks.

Do the above suggestions encompass everything you need to help your organization? Of course not. But I'm willing to bet that a lot of problems and growth concerns in your organizations would begin to be fixed by these. I invite you to try them out for 30 days, see what difference it makes. And let me know because we all can learn about it!

Just....don't feel the need to schedule a meeting with me if you don't really need to.

Nathan A. Vaughn

#BeU