Why Most Meetings Suck: The 3 Surprising Reasons and What You Can Do About It

This morning I watched a segment on the CBS Sunday Morning show about how to cut down on meetings. They described how meetings take up half of our time at work. According to Microsoft, meetings have increased 153% since the start of the pandemic. Yikes!

This leads to the question, why do we have so many meetings? I almost spit out my coffee laughing when correspondent Mo Rocco joked "those who can't make something, schedule meetings". He was referring to the increase in managers as part of the problem. I could relate, and I know I am guilty at times of scheduling too many meetings as a project manager.

This all got me thinking more about meetings. Aside from too many meetings, why do so many meetings suck? To answer this, I reflected back on my over twenty-five years in the corporate world. I also thought about lessons I learned running meetings as a project manager.

So, why do most meetings suck? Below I have listed out my three top culprits for bad meetings. Here goes:

1) The meeting lacks a clear goal

It drives me nuts when I get a meeting invite and the description says something like "project discussion" or "touch base on XYZ". Before a meeting is scheduled, the owner of the meeting should ask the question - what does success look like? Meaning, what exactly do we want to get out of the meeting? If no clear meeting purpose and goal is defined, the meeting likely is a waste of time.

Another example I see is with recurring meetings. Once I was in a recurring weekly meeting and I asked the organizer, in front of all the attendees, what was the purpose of the meeting? The organizer was unable to give a clear answer. They said it started out for one reason, then it changed. It was an akward situation because everyone realized they didn’t know why they were meeting.

It is the responsibility of the meeting organizer to articulate the object of the meeting. The meeting purpose should be communicated to all the meeting invitees beforehand. If the goal is not clear, people have the right to decline the meeting.

2) The meeting is too large

Including too many people in meetings is a common mistake. First, let's talk about the financial cost. I once looked around a meeting and realized that the financial cost for senior employees must have been staggering. Second, think of the opportunity cost incurred in large meetings. For all that time people are in the meeting, what else could they have accomplished? Third, large meetings become unfocused and ineffective.

In a letter to employees in 2018, Elon Musk told employees to avoid large meetings at all costs. Musk also told his employees that they should leave a meeting if they are not contributing. Musk says, “If a meeting doesn’t need your input, value or decisions, your presence is useless. It’s not rude to leave a meeting. But it’s rude to waste people’s time.”

3) The meeting does not have a strong facilitator

Every effective meeting needs someone to run it who has strong facilitation skills. This doesn't mean that one person should do most of the talking. It means that someone needs to be on point to keep the meeting focused on the goal.

In my early years with Accenture, I scheduled a requirements gathering meeting with over forty stakeholders. I realized in the meeting that the stakeholders all had strong opinions. In short, I was timid, and I lost control of the meeting. Things completely went off the rails. I ended the meeting about halfway into it. I made the mistake of including too many people in the meeting, and my facilitation skills at that time weren't up to par.

The meeting owner needs to be confident, clear and crisp. If the meeting starts to get off topic, the owner needs to speak up and bring it back to focus. They need to control the meeting. Sometimes people think they seem rude if they interrupt a discussion that is taking the meeting off track. The truth is, people appreciate it when the meeting owner speaks up and brings the meeting back to focus.

Summary

The increase in meetings during the pandemic has highlighted the problem of unproductive meetings that take up a significant amount of our work time. The three main reasons why meetings often suck are: the lack of a clear goal, too many people in attendance, and the absence of a strong facilitator. The meeting organizer should clearly define the meeting's purpose and communicate it to all attendees, and large meetings should be avoided whenever possible to prevent wasted time and money. Additionally, a facilitator with strong skills is crucial to keeping meetings focused and productive.

About the Author:?Mike MacIsaac is a principal consultant for?MacIsaac

Consulting