Find a meeting ground with these five pointers
Adrian Shepherd is a British productivity consultant who’s lived and worked in Japan for the past 24 years. He says that meetings can come at a cost to businesses — an estimated $37 billion a year, according to The Muse. Unfortunately, the time spent in meetings has only grown since 2000. Shepherd says they should be reduced as much as possible. Meetings should be as small as possible, and focused on discussion rather than just distributing information.
Shepherd says that meetings done right will boost productivity. Here he lists the five biggest mistakes you may be making:
1. You’re spending too much
How much are your meetings costing you? Maybe too much. Most people answer: We don’t know (and that’s not good). According to a survey conducted by The Muse, an estimated $37 billion is wasted in meetings each year. What’s worse is that every year since 2000, time in meetings has increased by 10 per cent.
Fix: Challenge yourself to reduce, or eliminate, as many meetings as possible. You’ll be surprised how few are really necessary.
2. You invited the wrong people
Too many cooks spoil the broth. The same is true in the boardroom; too many persons involved in a meeting can ruin it. Meetings are often held with a group of people who don’t need to be there.
Fix: Only have necessary members attend a meeting.
3. You don’t focus enough on the agenda
Poorly planned meetings can be worse than no meeting at all. An agenda, with clear goals and outcomes in mind, will transform your meetings. With an agenda in hand, work through the points one by one, crossing them off as you go. Once you finish everything on the agenda, the meeting is over. Don’t make the mistake of trying to fill up the allotted time. If your hour-long meeting finishes in 21 minutes, then so be it. A meeting should take as long as it takes, no longer.
Fix: Work from an agenda.
4. You put too much trust in your memory
Let’s face the facts: So many of us have lousy memories. To be fair, in today’s world, we suffer from information overload, or what productivity expert Darren Hardy calls “infobesity”. It’s simply impossible to remember everything.
Fix: Have minutes of the meeting distributed with all essential dates, numbers, and the overall action plan.
5. You aren’t using meetings for discussion
Meetings can be broken up into two types: Those meant to distribute information and those meant for discussion. Limit the first. There are better ways to distribute information in today’s world from videos to online systems that allow you to track any number of data.
As for discussion-based meetings, it’s important to remember Parkinson’s law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Keep your meetings concise. Don’t waste time. You want them to be simple ‘in-and-out’ procedures.
Fix: Find other, more efficient ways to distribute information. Try and keep meetings for discussions only.
Investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban considers meetings a waste of time. “The only way you’re going to get me for a meeting is if you’re writing me a cheque,” he has said
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner chooses ‘walking’ meetings instead of office ones, saying that the best ideas come out of them
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s three-rule method for better meetings is: Listen more, talk less, and be decisive when the time comes
Adrian Shepherd is a British productivity consultant who’s lived and worked in Japan for the past 24 years. He says that meetings can come at a cost to businesses — an estimated $37 billion a year, according to The Muse. Unfortunately, the time spent in meetings has only grown since 2000. Shepherd says they should be reduced as much as possible. Meetings should be as small as possible, and focused on discussion rather than just distributing information.
Shepherd says that meetings done right will boost productivity. Here he lists the five biggest mistakes you may be making:
1. You’re spending too much
How much are your meetings costing you? Maybe too much. Most people answer: We don’t know (and that’s not good). According to a survey conducted by The Muse, an estimated $37 billion is wasted in meetings each year. What’s worse is that every year since 2000, time in meetings has increased by 10 per cent.
Fix: Challenge yourself to reduce, or eliminate, as many meetings as possible. You’ll be surprised how few are really necessary.
2. You invited the wrong people
Too many cooks spoil the broth. The same is true in the boardroom; too many persons involved in a meeting can ruin it. Meetings are often held with a group of people who don’t need to be there.
Fix: Only have necessary members attend a meeting.
3. You don’t focus enough on the agenda
Poorly planned meetings can be worse than no meeting at all. An agenda, with clear goals and outcomes in mind, will transform your meetings. With an agenda in hand, work through the points one by one, crossing them off as you go. Once you finish everything on the agenda, the meeting is over. Don’t make the mistake of trying to fill up the allotted time. If your hour-long meeting finishes in 21 minutes, then so be it. A meeting should take as long as it takes, no longer.
Fix: Work from an agenda.
4. You put too much trust in your memory
Let’s face the facts: So many of us have lousy memories. To be fair, in today’s world, we suffer from information overload, or what productivity expert Darren Hardy calls “infobesity”. It’s simply impossible to remember everything.
Fix: Have minutes of the meeting distributed with all essential dates, numbers, and the overall action plan.
5. You aren’t using meetings for discussion
Meetings can be broken up into two types: Those meant to distribute information and those meant for discussion. Limit the first. There are better ways to distribute information in today’s world from videos to online systems that allow you to track any number of data.
As for discussion-based meetings, it’s important to remember Parkinson’s law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Keep your meetings concise. Don’t waste time. You want them to be simple ‘in-and-out’ procedures.
Fix: Find other, more efficient ways to distribute information. Try and keep meetings for discussions only.
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| Spanx founder Sara Blakley breaks up her weekdays into segments and has earmarked Wednesday as her meetings day |
Investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban considers meetings a waste of time. “The only way you’re going to get me for a meeting is if you’re writing me a cheque,” he has said
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner chooses ‘walking’ meetings instead of office ones, saying that the best ideas come out of them
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s three-rule method for better meetings is: Listen more, talk less, and be decisive when the time comes
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