Are You Having Board Meetings or Bored Meetings?
First of all, I think that most of the time spent in meetings is a waste of time. I don’t think the actual meetings are a waste of time, since they are an enabler to face-to-face interaction, which is critical, but EVERY meeting should have a set duration, agenda, and a desired outcome before you get to the table. And about that duration, I think that in most cases, meetings should limited to 20 minutes. There are just too many channels for real-time communication to save it all up for a three-hour marathon sessions.
In any case, in today’s business world, meetings still exist, so you should schedule them wisely. Back when I was a road warrior consultant, I got accustomed to Monday being a travel day and Friday being a “home office” day to catch up on paperwork and local office requirements. This schedule is convenient for both personal and professional purposes. Personally, you don’t miss critical weekend time with your friends and family, and professionally, it pulls your real work into the most productive days of the work-week: Tuesday through Thursday. If you have a meeting that you need people to show up to, and you want their attention, avoid scheduling on Mondays or Fridays.
Also, in my opinion the best time to schedule those meetings is mid-morning. Ending your meeting at lunch is a great idea too – it helps bound the meeting, and it provides an opportunity for you to take your client, or your staff to lunch following the meeting. Need to get at a senior executive? Look for early morning, before their calendar becomes completely derailed, or early evening, where they are less likely to have their schedules blocked to handle other unexpected fire drills.
But remember, scheduling is only half the battle. To truly excel in this space you have to master meeting execution. The #1 reason that people complain about having too many meetings is not only because of the quantity of the meetings, but they are also being dragged through unproductive time wasting meetings with no objective and no clear articulated path to solve a problem. Do you know your audience? Knowing the attendees and how they consume information to make decisions is critical to meeting success. Before you block the calendar for your next session, make sure to think through the problem, objective, and approach. Attendees, duration, and even the venue will set the tone. Your job is to get stuff done. Are meeting habits in your organization getting in the way of that?
Great post, for the most part, meetings are the biggest waste of time, energy and resources in business today. Always wanted to use Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf (sp?) idea, that meetings should be held in rooms without chairs. No one gets comfortable, no one drags the meeting out. Extreme, but I like it.
John, thanks for the comment. When I was a 2Lt in the Air Force, I used to help facilitate the Colonel’s daily ‘stand-up’ meetings. 7 AM start time and no one sat down. The meeting never went longer than 30 minutes, and people were more direct with their communication.
Good post Jason. We have been working on eliminating “Death by Meeting” for years – it is a journey, and any reminders like this post help. I think the hardest but most critical key to productive meetings is having an agenda. Every time we get sloppy about it, the meetings go downhill. We have also started to use Base Camp as the agenda for our staff meetings – it is a great tool to keep the conversations short, focused and productive. Joni
Great post Jason!! Its a great reminder about streamlining and meeting planning for those of us that feel like we spend our life in them!
Great post J – love the idea of stand up staff meetings. Stormin’ Norman was on to something!