Let's meet to plan our next three meetings!

You're sitting in a room with 30 other people and the boss is covering this week's numbers and asking for feedback as to how the sales department can reach its goals. It was the same meeting that was held two days earlier. Then again, that same meeting was held last week, and the week before. Most likely the same agenda will be given next week as well. Suddenly you find yourself in a time warp similar to "Groundhog's Day" where everything is repeating and even death itself can not free you from the insanity of pointless drivel that never seems to solve anything.  Sound familiar? 
     There is always more training that you need, more accountability to report, a decision to make, or an agenda to fulfill and nothing can deliver it better than another gathering of the key players in the organization. After all, several heads are better than one, right? The truth is meetings suck and everyone including the organizer knows it. So why is so much effort given to holding meetings that often go nowhere? Do meetings help increase sales, make employees perform better, or add value to the customer service experience? If not then they are doing nothing for your business except waste time that could otherwise be better spent on something productive.

Meetings are time wasters and there are 7 reasons why, according to Robert Half.
      The first is the organizer is lacking discipline. If the moderator fails to stick to an agenda, doesn't start or end on time, or lets participants direct the conversation the meeting will drag and fail to meet its objective. Second, the meeting addict will call countless meetings and often because there is a decision to be made that won't be made until every person who doesn't care about the decision can provide input. The third time waster is the pessimist who always seems to kill an idea because he/she insists the solution to the problem will not work. Consequently, that person will also not provide an idea of their own. The technology newbie will constantly tinker with a slide projector, a poorly working laptop, or electronic device for several minutes before asking for help, leaving everyone in the room sick to their stomach. The distracted co-worker who checks his email or text messages throughout the meeting thinks that his appointments are more important than anyone else will waste time when he doesn't respond to the objective in his direction. Meetings held at lunch always seem to draw time away from the much needed break or daily tasks that need to be run outside of the office. Finally, there is always a class clown. Jokes can be funny, but a one-liner after every point on the agenda become tedious.


Of course every once in a while meetings do have a point, they are important, and can solve real challenges at work. If the boss truly does have an objective or if a directive must be shared with everyone, the conference room serves an ideal purpose. Here are five ways that a meeting can be bearable.
     If there is both empathy and action then a meeting will be effective. The meeting must bring people together in order to build trust and bonds between co-workers. There must also be an objective or a challenge to solve. The meeting organizer must show up early and stay late. Participants should not be forced to wait for the moderator, and when questions are asked, if not pertinent to the entire group the organizer should be available to clarify. Meetings should be short, generally between 15 minutes and 1 hour in length, never longer. The agenda must be kept and distractions must be minimal. Finally, even if everyone needs to participate the meeting may not even be needed. Sometimes information can be provided in the form of a memo or an email to which participants can respond in kind.
       All in all, if a meeting is repetitive, mundane, or overtly pointless, avoid it when you can. The time adds up quickly and the lost production resulting from holding several meetings may actually the cause the need to generate another one. If decisions need to be made, make them. If objectives need to be given, give them. Your time as well as your employees' time is much to valuable to waste.