Don’t we all love meetings? The endless hours each week spent in communication that could have easily been handled by and email, the agendas with no outcomes or decisions, the time-wasting chit-chat and one-upmanship. If they needed a fifth horrible Horseman of the Apocalypse to accompany Famine, Plague, Pestilence and Death, the likely contender would be Meetings.
[tweet_quote hashtags=”#meetings” ]And a look at some of the data shows why they are so torturous.[/tweet_quote] Only 10% of meetings take up to 30 minutes. The most common durations are 30-60 minutes (26%) and 1-1.25 hours (25%), followed by 1.5-2 hourse (16%). Throw a few of those into your weekly schedule and see how it affects productivity. But feel some sympathy for those who have to endure meetings of 2-4 hours (13%) and those who survive the 10% that last longer than 6 hours.
The data researched by Lane End Conferences shows about 37% of employee time is spent in meeting, and 47% of attendees consider too many meetings to be the biggest waste of time in their week, while 25-50% of meeting time is actually just wasted. No wonder 70% of people bring other work to meetings, and 39% admitted to dozing off during a meeting.
So, are meetings even effective? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. The bosses certainly think they’re effective, with them getting a thumbs-up from 74% of senior management, 63% of managers, 63% of professionals, 62% of team leaders and 61% of sales people.
But the response is markedly different when you ask attendees. One out of 9 people admitted they daydream during meetings, and more than 27% saymeetings are the biggest reason for a lack of efficiency and productivity, while 49% consider unfocused meetings and projects as the biggest workplace time waster. Around 60% of attendees say they take notes to appear as if they are listening.
Most manager spend up to 10 hours a week in meetings and say that more than half the time is wasted, while executives said 28% of meetings are unnecessary. So what can you do to make them better?
Shorten
Make meetings of shorter duration — try cutting the usual time in half, for a start — and be firm about not going into overtime. Also make sure handouts and presentations are shorter… limit them to 20 pages maximum. If you can’t explain an idea in 20 pages, you need to think about how well you understand it yourself.
Sweeten
Keep the blood sugar up with some food on the meeting table, and coffee at the start to get people going. Be careful with your choice of food. You might think sugary treats will give people a boost, but carb-heavy ones like muffins and biscuits could send people into a ‘sugar daze’. Try glucose-based sweets and fruit.
Liven
Try standing meetings. People are more likely to get on with things and stay on track if they’re not lolling about in chairs. Try brainstorming exercises at the start to get people going, and make sure presentations include engaging visuals rather than just dull-lookig pages of text.
