Justin Hale is a speaker and training designer for Crucial Learning with expertise in organizational communication and productivity.
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Meetings. For most people, the word itself sends a sort of productivity chill down their spine. One of the most common critiques among knowledge workers is their disdain for most meetings. I found this data revealing:
• According to MIT's Sloan Management Review, the average executive spends 23 hours a week in meetings.
• A Harvard Business Review study of 182 senior managers found that 71% of respondents said meetings are unproductive and inefficient, 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking and 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.
• Korn Ferry surveyed 1,945 workers and found that 67% say excessive meetings keep them from getting their best work done.
Even though most leaders are aware that their people don’t love meetings, many don’t stop to think about the impact of meetings or they power through them as a necessary evil. Here are five reasons your people really hate meetings and some ideas for what you can do about it.
1. No Action Plan
This is often people’s biggest reason for hating meetings (and the most consequential). They talk, brainstorm, share... and then the leaders end the meeting with something trite: “Let’s all think on this until the next meeting.” And then nothing gets done.
Ideas for change:
• Make it a habit of ending every single meeting with five minutes to spare. Spend four of those five minutes establishing what the next actions are, who will be taking those actions, when those actions will be completed and when the group will follow up to hold people accountable for those actions. If you don’t have any actions, then you may have just discovered a meeting you didn’t need to hold—or better yet, an email that should have been sent instead. Then, end the meeting one minute early. No one will complain.
My one caveat is that it’s true that the purpose of some meetings is to brainstorm, talk and connect. But make that clear upfront: “Hey team, the goal is not to have this solved by the end of the meeting. The purpose is to brainstorm initial ideas for _______.”
2. Too Long
People really hate going to meetings that could have been done in half the time. Meetings follow the adage of Parkinson's Law: A meeting will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. That’s how you get one-hour meetings that should be 30 minutes and four-hour brainstorms that could have been done in two hours.
Ideas for change:
• Test out cutting your meetings in half and see how much more productive people are. My guess is you'll see less chit-chat, less meandering and more people getting down to business.
3. No Purpose
When the purpose of the meeting is unclear or when there is no real agenda, meetings drone on aimlessly while people wonder why they came at all. A lack of purpose can kill motivation for attendance and increase the likelihood the meeting will go too long.
Ideas for change:
• Often people receive meeting invites with the most obtuse titles like “Update,” “Check In” or “Getting Your Feedback.” Make the meeting title very specific—it doesn’t matter if it’s a long title if it’s clear.
• Put the specific outcome you are hoping to achieve in the notes portion of the meeting invite. What would success look like at the end of that meeting, and why do you need to get together to achieve that outcome?
I saw a manager set interesting precedence for his team once. He told them, “If someone on our team sends you an invite for a meeting without a clear agenda for how the time will be spent and why you personally are vital to the success of the meeting, you have my permission to decline the meeting.” This manager was trying to put the onus back on the meeting creator (who was often himself) to show greater respect for everyone’s time.
4. Poor Meeting Etiquette
At their best, meetings are a chance for teammates to dialogue, debate and solve problems together. At their worst, meetings showcase some annoying behaviors like showing up late, multitasking, not paying attention and interrupting. These annoying meeting behaviors kill motivation for much of the team.
Ideas for change:
• Be more explicit about expectations—what do good meeting behaviors look like and why should the team care?
• Hold people accountable. As the leader, it’s your job to call out gaps between expected meeting behavior and actual meeting behavior. if someone has a pattern of interrupting, for example, reach out to them after the meeting and hold that much-needed crucial conversation.
5. No Role
How often have you been in a meeting for 10 minutes and wondered, “Why am I here?” Leaders rarely make it clear why each person is invited to the meeting. You might even understand the purpose of the meeting, but have no clue how your personal contribution will help drive that outcome.
Ideas for change:
• Along with an agenda/purpose, make sure you communicate why each person is there. I know you might be rolling your eyes, thinking, Some of my meetings have 10 to 15 people in them. Are you honestly saying I need to spell out the role for each person? Not necessarily. If it’s a weekly team meeting, then there should be an implicit understanding that if you’re a team member, your attendance is vital to the success of the meeting.
• If you are the meeting organizer, take 30 seconds to get clear with yourself as to why each person should be there. Remove people from invites where needed.
I’ve found that when leaders utilize these tips, they have fewer unhelpful meetings, which frees up productive time for their people, allowing more work to get done in less time. Which one of these tips will you implement this week?
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