The cult of business meetings should disappear

At our meeting today, we will discuss our top ten tasks of prime importance.

I'm not sure why we decided to get together, but let's meet anyway.
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Sorry, I was late, my first meeting was delayed. Could you remind me the topic that we are discussing?

I hear it every day. (I know that you, too.) I often hear these phrases so often that I don’t pay attention to how incredible and ironic it all is. Just think: how can you focus on the ten primary tasks of paramount importance? This is the most important. This is what needs to be done FIRST. How do you ensure that these ten tasks are solved?

Nevertheless, we organize a meeting, patiently “sit”, listen, suffer garbage instead of focusing on ten main issues. With half a sin, we reject a bunch of nonsense piled on us at a meeting that has neither a clear plan nor a clear goal. At such meetings, participants are usually late or run prematurely. As a result, we have a terrible inefficiency.

It all looks weird, right?

Because we did not choose and did not want such a way of development of our business, whatever it was.

The cult of business meetings, swallowed up our businesses, is fundamentally flawed. And it destroys your efficiency and profitability of your business, as exemplified by the recent dismissal of Bryan Stockton, CEO of Mattel (this is the toy maker who produces the world famous Barbie doll) after another wave of failed sales . When Stockton was asked what happened, he replied that Mattel lacked an innovative approach, and it was the fault of the poor organization of meetings.

So, before another week full of meetings and meetings, how do you identify and eliminate unnecessary events? And, first of all, how to outgrow them and avoid the emergence of unnecessary meetings in the future?

Calculate the cost of each collection

Each meeting has a very real value. This is the hourly rate of each person attending the meeting. Suppose that the hourly rate of anyone who attends your weekly office meetings is somewhere between $ 100-300. Let's choose the golden mean, $ 200, and multiply this amount by ten - the number of meeting participants.



Your business meetings will cost you $ 2,000 weekly. And now imagine that you could invest these 2000 dollars in your product or in improving the services of an enterprise. Do you really think that this investment will not return to you at least in the same amount? And now, why don't you agree with yourself that every meeting in your organization should at least “beat off” its value, that is, the time value of its participants?

Calculate the cost of your meetings and identify from the general list of those that are unprofitable or bring too low income.

Ask yourself a question about the personal and professional value of each meeting.

If you want to exclude bad meetings from your calendar, the first thing to question is the personal and professional value of each of your meetings. Instead of automatically accepting the offer of the next meeting, stop and think about whether it will return your investment.

• Will this meeting help you achieve your goals?
• How does the purpose of the meeting (if it exists at all!) Intersect with the company's strategic priorities?
• How can you contribute to this meeting?
• Does anyone notice your absence?
• Will this meeting energize you or drain your vitality?
• Will this meeting be only a “rehash” of the last five meetings?

First of all, is attending this meeting as of the moment the best and most efficient use of your time? Every time you agree to one thing, you give up something else.

Do not leave anything to chance - schedule your meetings

When you are considering launching a new product or service, you carefully research the market, conduct tests and carefully plan each stage from development to launch. Your meetings require the same attention. The success of any meeting depends on prior deliberation and planning.

To increase your chances of holding effective and efficient meetings, consider answering the following questions before you schedule your next meeting:

• Why do we need to meet? If you cannot answer this question, do not proceed to the next one. You do not need to meet.
• What is the purpose of the meeting?
• What do I want to achieve as a result of this meeting?
• Are there any other ways to achieve the same result?
• If the meeting is important, what kind of meeting format would be ideal for achieving its goals: a personal meeting, a virtual meeting, or a combination of both?
• Who needs to attend the meeting?
• What information do I need from those present?
• What should attendees know or end before a meeting for a meeting to be productive?
• What are my expectations regarding the preparation and contribution of those present to the meeting? How do I voice them?

If you answer all these questions and act methodically in accordance with the answers given by you, it will be a guarantee that your meeting will be focused on its real goals and they will be achieved. You will save time and money.

Question the duration of each meeting.

How often have you, when leaving a meeting, thinking: “This meeting would have fit even in 10 minutes” or even “We could have finished the meeting one HOUR ago”?

At some point, we all stop thinking carefully about the ideal duration of each meeting and become victims of the default functions in our calendars, according to which each meeting is given one hour, regardless of its goals. Cross over this convention. Start questioning the duration of all meetings you are holding (or in which you are playing as a passive listener).

If you are holding a meeting, think thoroughly about its goals, results, and format to calculate the ideal duration of the meeting. If you are holding a virtual meeting in the form of a telephone conversation or video conference, then be prepared for the fact that you may not be able to fully capture the attention of your remote invisible colleagues who are engaged in other tasks at the same time.



This means that a meeting between 45 and 60 minutes in length is guaranteed to lead to a serious deterioration of attention and concentration. The shorter the virtual meeting, the better.

Your goal is to schedule meetings as short as possible and at the same time effective in terms of concentrating the attention of the participants. Consider reducing each meeting by 15 minutes. And do not forget about the Parkinson law - the work should take all the time allotted to it.

What can you do now?

• Look at your schedule for the next week and cross out at least two meetings. Use this time to think or finish work.
• Before agreeing to go to the next meeting, an invitation to which appeared in your incoming messages, ask yourself whether this meeting will help in achieving your goals, what your contribution may be, and whether the meeting is a “rehash” of the last five meetings.
• Shorten all your meetings by 15 minutes.