Effective Meetings

Assuming each of these meetings is one hour long, professionals lose 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings, or approximately four work days. Considering these statistics, it's no surprise that meetings have such a bad reputation

How are unproductive meetings affecting us?

Most professionals who meet on a regular basis admit to daydreaming (91%), missing meetings (96%) or missing parts of meetings (95%). A large percentage (73%) say they have brought other work to meetings and 39% say they have dozed during meetings. One might be tempted to snicker at these statistics, but have you seriously considered how these inefficiencies affect you and your organisation?

Some direct effects of unproductive meetings include:

• Meetings are longer, less efficient and generate fewer results
• More meetings are needed to accomplish objectives
• With so much time spent in ineffective meetings, employees have less time to get their own work done
• Ineffective meetings create frustration at all staff levels
• Information generated in unproductive meetings usually isn't managed properly
• Inefficient meetings cost organisations billions of dollars each year in otherwise productive employee work time

What's the outlook?

Meeting frequency is actually increasing and today's professionals are attending more and more meetings. 46% of respondents to a recent MCI survey reported they attend more meetings today than they did one year ago. With business moving faster than ever, meetings are how we stay informed.

What can be done to improve our meetings?

1. Learn and communicate the basics
   
   The first step to improving meetings is to start with the basics - which means training everyone in the organisation about effective meetings. Because meetings are such an integral part of business, everyone in the organisation should understand the fundamentals of an effective meeting and how to achieve their goals each and every time they meet.
   
   Giving employees access to meeting information helps them understand the effect of unproductive meetings on their work lives and gives them the power to improve unproductive meeting situations.
2. Apply effective meeting techniques
   
   Once everyone in the organisation understands the importance of improving meeting effectiveness and has learned the appropriate techniques, incentives must be created to motivate employees to apply what they've learned. Support of management or group leaders will also assist in the implementation and commitment to new meeting methods.
   
   When the group as a whole is committed to improving the situation, then a behavioural norm is created. If new behaviours are expected and consistently reinforced over time, individuals will attempt to achieve and follow the norms. 
3. Implement technological tools to make meeting easier

Conclusion

A quote from George David Kieffer's book, The Strategy of Meetings, summarises the impact meetings have on organisations today and how seriously meetings should be considered now and in the future:

"I decided to talk with some of America's most successful and respected leaders in business, labour, industry, education and government - many of whom are viewed as masters in the art of conducting meetings - to gain their insights into the subject. In speaking with over fifty of these leaders, two central points emerged:

1. The skill to manage a meeting to develop ideas, to motivate people and to move people and ideas to positive action is perhaps the most critical asset in any career.
   
2. Most professionals have had no real training in devising and managing an effective meeting.

In fact, most professionals do not recognise the enormous impact their meetings have on their organisations and their careers."