12 Ways to End Soul-Sucking Meetings
Poorly run meetings cost US companies $399 Billion.
The survey says:
“We surveyed 182 senior managers in a range of industries:
- 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work.
- 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient,
- 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.
- 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.”
12 Ways to End Soul-Sucking Meetings:
#1. Eliminate back-to-back meetings.
All meetings end 10 minutes before the top of the hour.
#2. Shorten standard meeting length to 25 minutes.
#3. Prepare people to participate and put them on the agenda.
Mary presents 3 pros and 3 cons to get the conversation started.
#4. Improve meetings.
At the end of meetings, occasionally ask:
- What made this meeting work well?
- What’s one way to make our next meeting even better?
#5. Declare NO-MEETING times. If you’re able, declare NO-MEETING days.
#6. Make meetings small.
Observe the two-pizza rule. Two medium pizzas can feed all attendees.
#7. Eliminate multi-tasking.
- Minimize technology. No cell phones, for example.
- Multi-tasking lowers your IQ to an 8-year-old. (Forbes)
- Multi-tasking makes you inefficient. (Stanford)
If you really want to be productive, do one thing at a time.
#8. Spend time building relationships.
Strong relationships and psychological safety result in efficient meetings as long as you maintain focus on goals.
#9. Don’t talk about it unless you plan to do something about it.
Spend less time criticizing and complaining and more time solving.
#10. Making decisions in the meeting, NOT before the meeting.
I’ll never forget one leader saying, “Never go into a meeting unless you know the outcome before you begin.” Foregone conclusions indicate wasted meeting time.
Discussions are manipulations if you’ve already made up your mind.
#11. Eliminate interrupting and bloviating.
#12. Reduce observers.
Anyone who consistently leaves meetings without something to do shouldn’t be in the meeting.
Which meeting tip would you like to implement in your organization?
What meeting tips might you add to the list?
Bonus material:
The Science and Fiction of Meetings (MIT Sloan)
7 Tips to More Productive Meetings (Project Management Hacks)
An interesting debatable post!
We have various experiences while attending Company Level Meetings and learnt good lessons when our turn came as a Team Leader. Liked your Points Nos. 2, 3 & 8. It’s an ideal thing to ensure that all attendees come bit prepared on the agenda topics prior hand. Let the things remain Confidential to the participating group. Each one is important and should contribute constructive views in the intetest of an organization.
The faith and trust what a leader carries is quite important to make meetings much more productive. It’s not necessary to have snacks with tea/coffee while meeting is on! It can be served in the beginning to avoid any kind of disruption and getting full attention.
The key to productive meetings will be to respect every participant and listen to his ideas/views. A leader has to ensure no groupism at any meeting which can lead to wrong decisions based on majority views.
Thanks Dr. Asher. It’s interesting that listening is an important part of leading a meeting. Too often, the person leading the meeting dominates the conversation.
Which meeting tip would you like to implement in your organization?#9. Don’t talk about it unless you plan to do something about it. Someone needs the authority to implement the changes as directed. I believe in the Accountability, owning ones actions and taken responsibility. The next step is learning what we did and modifying future plans.
What meeting tips might you add to the list? Stick to the content intent, if others change the subject, direct that topic till later time or future meeting.
Thanks Tim. It’s easy to get off topic. One suggestion is to put off-topic items on a list for potential future consideration. “Lets put that on our list of future topics.”
Try stand up meetings for those times when you only have one or two things on agenda.
Thanks Paul. I’ve notice that standing and eating enables people to mingle while they eat.
#9. Don’t talk about it unless you plan to do something about it. WOW that could change the world as we know it, not just for meetings. Question does anyone else do pre meeting if a non team member (chief) is going to come. That way we deal with our stuff and plan what to engage the visitor with? Ok we also make sure we are all on the same page.
Thanks Walt. Now, if we can just practice the “talk to solve – not to complain” rule into play a little more often, we would feel more powerful.
We often had pre meetings when a big wheel was coming. Usually, only the top people spoke and everyone else was an audience. Usually a waste of time.
Perhaps the only reason to have a big wheel attend a meeting is to share unique information and be a cheerleader.
I’m consistently challenged by #8 and finding the appropriate amount of time to spend relationship building and getting to task. I don’t want to frustrate those who are ready to ‘dig in’, but want to be sensitive to those who need to ‘ease in’ to discussion via relationship building.
Thanks Rebecca. Great question. I wonder how the team might help you decide?
One organization I’m in has these rules;
1. Strict agenda
2. Start and finish time adhered to (if not everything was covered – too bad; it will be next time)
3. No rabbit holes
4. Last agenda item; rate the meeting 1-10 (very revealing).
Thanks Ian. It’s surprising how many meetings have sloppy or no agenda. I suppose we should add, get the agenda out in a timely manner.
I would love to hear more about rating the meeting 1-10. Can you explain the process? Thanks!
Everyone writes a number between 1-10 in their notes. 1 terrible, 10 fabulous. Then you go round the table, and people show their number – no changing it based on what others said. Maybe 10 seconds to explain why.
I think what’s perhaps overlooked is why you’ve having a meeting: is it to actually discuss things, explore and agree, in which case the above works really, really well. Or, are you having meetings to tell everyone what you’ve decided they’re going to do and why they should think it’s a good idea. In which case multi-tasking allows you to get some return on the time spent…
Adjunct to #10 – report to a leader that demands “the meeting before the meeting?” Find a new job. Immediately.
Thanks Mike. Now that’s clear. 🙂
Having sat through many meetings that have gone off the rails, this brief post is packed with terrific info for any meeting facilitator. Even two or three takeaways, if implemented, can increase meeting efficiency and effectiveness by a large margin. And it works especially well with non-business meetings (e.g. volunteer organizations). I especially like the “two pizza rule”! I plan to share this within my sphere of influence.
Thanks Frank. I think the goal is making small improvements over a long period of time. Who knows, we might actually come to enjoy meetings? 🙂
My organization has meetings to have meetings. I sometimes feel like I am in the television show The Office. Most of these are a giant waste of time. In the meeting they discuss having a meeting to talk about what we came to discus to begin with. I feel I am never able to get work done as I always have a meeting to go to.
. Managers emotionally prepared with teams committed to the work, we would certainly have meetings to evaluate and conclude the projects and which new guidelines should be used. In any segment of the Society I realize that the meetings are for a confrontation of Egos, and not solutions that address new perspectives, explained in a clear way by the numbers mentioned in the research in question. From the moment that this is taken into account, we will have productive and resolute meetings, thus emerging new projects. I believe that this research should be distributed in all segments of the Society for deep reflection, and that new goals should be outlined when the practice of any meeting is mentioned. Thank you!
Hi Dan,
Wonderful, wonderful! I spent 6 days with Don Schwartz decades ago learning how to manage meetings. In my executive positions in business, not for profits and academia I ran 20 minute meetings for solving any situation. Not all meetings will ever fit that model, but a lot of them do and people will be in awe of the time that they can save. I really appreciate bring this leadership idea to the forefront for leaders today and tomorrow from ll generations.
Bob