Written by: Luca Berni, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Organizations don't have to cut costs. A growing organization must see its costs rise. What must be reduced is waste! Today, one of the most common wastes of time and money is meetings.
A few years ago, in the United States, some surveys relating to the effectiveness of the meetings were released and commissioned by the public administration and private telecommunications companies. In the pre-covid period, just in the United States, there were about 25 million meetings per day. It was estimated that a middle manager spent about 30% of his time in a meeting, while a top manager spent about 50% of his time in a meeting. 92% of respondents said they did "other things" while listening to others in a meeting, 69% said they checked their emails and 49% admitted doing things not related to the topic of the meeting. Crossing the data, it was deduced that 67% of the time spent in a meeting was wasted. All this was estimated to generate a waste of money in the order of 37 billion dollars a year! (*)
These figures refer only to the USA, but I believe that, given due proportions, the situation in other countries is similar or even worse.
There are no data collected in the post-covid era, but the widespread feeling is that the waste of time in meetings has not decreased and that, thanks to the spread of group video calls, the situation has worsened. So how to reduce the waste of time in meetings? First, it must be considered that a meeting has a before, a during, and an after. Here are some simple, but effective, rules for managing the three moments.
Before the meeting
Define the result. Every meeting must be called to get a result. The first question to ask is: do we really need a meeting, or can we resolve it some other way? The second question, and the most important, is: what result do we want to achieve with this meeting? It sounds strange, but many don't ask themselves this question.
Define the total time. The more time you have, the longer it will take (Parkinson's law). To calculate the duration of a meeting, you can use the formula: Duration = no. Participants x 5 min + 10 min. Therefore, a meeting with 4 people shouldn't last more than half an hour.
Invitation to participants. Participants must receive the invitation with the agenda in advance which allows them to arrive prepared.
During the meeting
Respect for the time. Always respect the starting time, according to the old rule: if you are on time, then you are 5 minutes late. Always respect the time planned for each topic. This may take extra effort. Good, that's efficiency!
Orientation to the results. Efficiency in timing and effectiveness of results. Each intervention must be aimed at approaching or achieving the desired result. If not, it is much better to keep quiet. If you criticize a proposal from a colleague, you must always propose an alternative, otherwise, again, it is much better to remain silent. Everyone must always be ready to give up something to achieve a common result.
Check the result. Always check the result achieved, compared to the desired one. The result must always be achieved on time. It can be done, it's just a matter of training. If people know that the result will be verified, they will be more effective and efficient.
Create an action plan. Each meeting should end with an action plan, which includes who should do what, when, for what purpose, and how it will be verified.
After the meeting
Send a summary. Send a few lines summarizing the decisions made and the action plan. Everyone must receive the same document.
Check the results of the actions. This is the part that we tend to forget: the verification of what has been achieved with respect to what is expected. This is a crucial step so that the meeting leads to concrete results and is not another waste of time.
All these steps can seem labour-intensive and time-consuming. But many of them can be done in minutes if not second, while the advantage that is obtained is in the order of hours or whole days.
Luca Berni, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Luca Berni is an Executive & Team Coach that works with Leaders, Top Managers, Entrepreneurs, Boards of Directors, and Leadership Teams. Before becoming a Coach in 2009, he worked as a Manager in different Multinational companies in different Countries for almost twenty years. Luca also works as a management consultant, he co-founded and runs TheNCS The Neuroscience Coaching School, and he writes articles and books about Coaching and Management.
Source:
National Statistics Council USA and Infocom for Verizon Business
