Wait, weren’t we meant to finish five minutes ago?
Did this even have to be a meeting???
We’ve all been there – stuck in a meeting where the discussion seems to be going around in circles as the clock ticks well past the scheduled end time.
Or you come away from a meeting wondering what exactly has been accomplished.
Given that knowledge workers report that 72% of meetings are ineffective, chances are you’ve been there many times.
But inefficient meetings aren’t just painful while they’re happening. They have big-picture consequences for the productivity, engagement, and well-being of everyone involved. Having fewer unnecessary meetings should, of course, be a priority. However, it’s also important to ensure that the necessary ones are as effective and efficient as possible.
The Root Causes of Unproductive Meetings
While there are many factors that can impact whether meetings are productive, according to one team of researchers there are three fundamental problems:
- Frequency – Meetings are simply happening too often.
- Scheduling – Decisions about the timing and duration of meetings aren’t being made with productivity in mind.
- Poor Facilitation – Whether it’s a lack of preparation or problems during the discussions themselves, meetings aren’t as productive as they should be.
These issues are exacerbated by the fact that people often view meetings as a “necessary evil” (especially when aligning teams across locations and time zones). The pain of too many poor meetings is assumed to be the price we pay for the benefits, rather than thinking critically about how we can approach meetings and the collaborative work that surrounds them.
The Cost of Ineffective Meetings
Ineffective meetings negatively impact productivity, engagement, and well-being. They take time, energy, and mental bandwidth away from other tasks, potentially pushing us to work longer hours to catch up, which has a productivity cost.
Added to this, we can’t simply get right back to work after a meeting. It takes time for our brains to switch contexts, meaning the overall time cost of a meeting is likely to be longer than the slot on the calendar. Psychologists even came up with the term “Meeting Recovery Syndrome” to describe the time it takes us to decompress after a taxing or frustrating meeting. Though you likely knew what it meant, without any explanation.
In contrast, constructive meeting practices are a predictor of organizational success and employees’ satisfaction with meetings feeds into overall job satisfaction. Reducing meetings have shown improvements in productivity, engagement, accountability, and effective use of asynchronous communication.
How to Make Meetings Smarter
So, how do you move toward a more positive meeting culture? Here are some strategies you and your team can use to create more efficient, productive, and effective meetings.
Triage Meeting Necessity
The first step is to be more selective about the meetings you have. When deciding whether to hold a meeting, get very clear on the desired outcome and the type of meeting required.
What is the goal you’re trying to achieve? It might be to:
- Gather ideas
- Coordinate with the team
- Give feedback
- Share updates
- Reach a decision
For each of those goals, consider if there’s another way you could achieve that outcome. For instance, ideas can often be shared asynchronously, while well managed project management tools can streamline coordination. Feedback can be shared with greater precision using online proofing. Updates are certainly worth considering as “this could’ve been an email”.
Rethink Scheduling
When to meet and for how long? Firstly, keep in mind that spreading meetings across the week can help maximize everyone’s energy (even though it’s tempting to blitz through them in one day). And as for duration, the optimal length of time for a particular meeting will depend on the nature of that meeting. Keeping them as short as possible, however, respects people’s attention spans and boosts focus.
Author Donna McGeorge, who recommends 25 minutes as the ideal meeting time, explains it like this: “If we’re clear about what we want to do, we know what our purpose is, and we’re scarce around the amount of time (…) we create a sense of urgency for getting things done.”
Rather than sticking with the traditional 30 or 60 minutes in a conference room, experiment with different schedules. That could include regular 15-minute power huddles, standing meetings, or even 5-minute walking meetings (a favorite of Virgin founder Richard Branson). You might be surprised by what you’re able to achieve in a short time.
Lastly, ring-fencing periods of meeting-free time for the team could also help to keep meetings at a more manageable level. This will also give everyone a chance to engage in the deep work necessary to make meaningful progress with their other tasks.
VIPs Only
While a range of perspectives is important, too many people at a meeting may impede decision-making and reduce productivity. The larger the group, the less people feel inclined to contribute, thanks to “social loafing”. There’s nothing worse than people in a meeting wondering why they’re even there…and then feeling like they have to contribute.
A popular theory recommends having no more than 8 people present if you need to make a decision, whereas you can go as high as 18 for brainstorming.
To help whittle it down, staff at McKinsey advise thinking about invitees in terms of the role they’ll play in achieving the meeting’s purpose. For instance, you could divide people into decision-makers, advisers, and those who’ll execute.
Be Prepared
Create and share an agenda ahead of time so people can start to organize their thoughts (you could include some discussion questions too). Make sure to state the desired outcome for each item as that will help people judge the kind of input that will be most valuable.
Think about how you can use tools to free everyone up to focus on the discussion. For instance, an AI meeting assistant to take notes and create meeting records. Or providing a means to centralizing content that needs to be reviewed or approved in advance. If your goal is to come up with ideas and solutions, planning a brainstorming exercise could help to get everyone thinking in an organized manner.
Keep Things Flowing
Briefly review the agenda at the start of a meeting and then keep referring back to it (especially if things stray off-topic). This keeps everyone focused.
Keep an eye on the clock, too. While it’s important to start promptly, psychologist Steven Rogelberg says it’s even more important to finish on time as finishing late could have a knock-on effect for people’s days.
Stop the discussion shortly before the end so you can confirm next steps and assign tasks, ensuring everyone comes away with a sense of clarity and purpose. Record the resulting ideas, tasks, and feedback into a project management platform to ensure the meetings’ efforts turn into action.
Tools to Make Meetings Redundant
In many instances, that meeting could’ve been an email (or a Review). Gathering feedback and approving work is a strong example of an area where meetings aren’t always the best method for achieving the desired outcomes. Streamlining things with a robust review system will enable you to slash the number of meetings you need and make those you do have more straightforward.
Online proofing is one way to do this. It allows you to leave precise feedback, while commenting features enable people to discuss changes in context. There’s no need to spend time in meetings clearing up miscommunications or clarifying feedback, or debating every revision. Los De Idea reduced revision meetings by 50%, while Lixil was able to eliminate 7 meetings per week.
Building Better Meetings as a Team
Meeting culture is something you need to constantly evaluate as a team. Regularly ask people for feedback on particular meetings and how they’re perceived.
Researchers Perlow, Hadley and Eun created a set of sample questions for this, including “Think of three words or phrases that come to mind when you think about the meetings you attend regularly.” and “Do you see patterns in the best meetings that could be replicated elsewhere?”
Meetings can be a productivity drain, but they don’t have to be. By being more intentional about why, when, and how you organize them as a team, you can maximize the positives and mitigate the negatives. By aiming for shorter, purpose-driven meetings, you can ensure everyone leaves feeling energized and empowered by the discussion.
