Excessive meetings take up 40% of productivity time
Many organisations are currently trapped in a culture of fruitless meetings that take up their productive time. Although meetings are critical in fostering collaboration, improving communication, fostering accountability, and making business decisions, if they are, unplanned, unorganized, and extreme they can be a complete waste of time and organisational pain. A good meeting must have a deliverable or action plan at the end and if there is none, it shows that it was not a productive meeting. Not every decision or issue that has to be discussed should go through a meeting because there are different communication mediums to communicate with teams, and management especially if the decision or issue is not critical. Research by Harvard Business Review shows that out of 182 executive managers that were interviewed from different industries, 65 percent of them confirmed that lots of meetings constrain them from completing their work, 71 percent suggest that these meetings are inefficient, and 62 percent suggest that the meetings do not any how build collaboration between management. The research also shows that 56 percent of participants have confessed that they leave meetings without knowing what to do next because there are no action plans or deliverables.
Further research by Skillcast Consulting conducted in United Kingdom indicate that executive management waste at least 2 days every week preparing for meetings, and this could be the time directed towards leading employees and managing the implementation of the organisation strategy. The research further shows that 39 percent of employees admitted that most of the time they are dozing off or they are not paying attention during meetings. This means it is very important to be strategic and invite the right people to the right meetings because those who might not be affected or responsible for issues that are discussed may be confused, uninterested, or have boredom during meetings. This implies that unproductive meetings contribute to the organisation operational cost not only in terms of productive time, but also monetary wise. For example, if it is a habit that executive management meet 2 days a week, count their daily salary and multiply it by number of days. That is a huge operational cost, and it indicates that the organization is not maximizing the value of its employees. Furthermore, excessive meetings can have a significant impact on both employees and organizations, often in negative ways like reduced performance especially when it disrupts work plan and employee’s workflow leading to decrease in productivity. Too many meetings also lead to burnout and stress, and this can negatively impact mental and physical health of employees. As result, it directly affects these employees’ work- life balance, morale and decreased job dissatisfaction.
To mitigate these negative impacts, organizations should prioritize effective meeting management and promote a culture of mindful and purposeful meetings. This includes evaluating the necessity of each meeting, setting clear objectives, and encouraging open communication about the impact of meetings on employees’ workloads and well- being. Balancing the need for meetings with the need for uninterrupted work time is essential for maintaining a healthy and productive workplace environment.
Other common strategies used to reduce excessive meetings is to consolidate and batch meetings. Many organisations have scheduled of meeting plan and this some of the meetings can be consolidated into one meeting especially those that are attended by similar participants. To ensure that work is not interpreted, it is critical to rotate meeting responsibilities among team members so that the whole team is empowered to have ownership of decision that are made and to improve their level of accountability. It is also important to time meetings and make it an organisational standard because some meetings can take long time simple because people tend to focus on trivial issues and derail the meeting. Another strategy is to use alternative communication channels such as email, chat apps, or collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams for quick updates, shared folder and WhatsApp groups especially in case where the meeting purpose is to share specific information. Moreover, another strategy is to introduce meetings free weeks and this strategy has proven to increase employee’s autonomy by 83 percent, improve employee’s cooperation by 61 percent, improve employee’s productivity by 44 percent and reduce employee’s micromanagement 68 percent. In addition to the above, it is important to use decision making tools like the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize issues that deserve executive management meetings and those that can be delegated to line management or supervisors. This will reduce time taken by management in trivial meetings and enable them to focus on their strategic roles.
The Author is a member of African Excellence Forum, holds Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management, Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence from America Society for Quality and he is also a Certified Professional Excellence Assessor. Contact: 72211182, Website: www. iqm. co. bw and Email: veronmosalakatane@ gmail. com LinkedIn: Veron Mosalakatane