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Hate unproductive meetings? The average U.S. worker spends 31 hours in 62 unproductive meetings a month and consider half of them to be time wasted. To put this in perspective, one-third of the 11 million meetings in the U.S. taking place every day are unproductive, costing companies $37 billion a year. Not only that, at least 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created daily for meetings!
Want some more interesting statistics in regards to meetings?
- 91% of attendees have admitted to daydreaming
- 96% have purposely missed meetings
- 39% have slept during meetings
- 45% feel overwhelmed
- 73% do other work
- 47% believe meetings to be the number one time-waster
The purpose of a meeting is to discuss something face-to-face to get things done. Here are tips to make sure you meetings are productive and more effective—before they start. I call it the “5 Ws and How” of Meetings.
- Clarify the WHY and Purpose. Be clear on why the meeting is taking place, what is expected of people and what the meeting will be about. If not, a meeting can turn into an aimless social gathering with people wondering why they are there instead of a productive meeting.
- Clarify the WHAT and End-State. What is the goal for the meeting? Is it to solve a problem? Is it to make a decision or come up with an idea? Without a clear objective, it is easy to be distracted and waste time without accomplishing anything.
- Clarify the WHO and Attendees. Each person attending should have a role and be there for a reason. If meetings are too large, then only a few people may dominate without any input from others. In addition, there should be a designated decision-maker who is responsible for keeping the meeting productive and on track. One study showed that people have a tough time distinguishing from the topic experts and the loudest person in the room. Clarify who is accountable to what topic instead of listening to the loudest person who likes to talk and often isn’t saying anything of substance or accuracy.
- Clarify the WHEN and Start/End Time. 37% of meetings start late because people arrive late. This leads to people being disrespected, embarrassed and frustrated, driving down performance. It is important to start on time and end on time. More importantly, keep the meeting as short as possible. Since a third of meetings are unproductive, have fewer of them and cut out ones that aren’t critical. Don’t aim to fill the time; aim to complete the objective. If every item on the agenda is done in ten minutes for an hour-long meeting, end it there.
- Clarify the WHICH and Action Steps. The meeting should end with which courses of action to take. Action steps help people understand what is next, who is responsible for what and when it will be done. Send a recap of the meeting to all attendees of what was discussed and the action steps for which people are responsible. This way there is no confusion and you don’t have to set up another meeting to clear up the confusion caused by the first one!
- Clarify the HOW and Agenda. Each meeting should have an agenda so attendees know what to focus on and in what order. You want people to be prepared for meetings and have the slides, agenda or meeting documents prior to the meeting to review. If they are prepared and on the same page, than the meeting will run quicker. Enforce meeting etiquette for everyone, which is often as simple as what not to do, such as not eating, not checking your phone and not interrupting.
Instituting these changes can be done overnight, but adoption will take longer. It is important to get buy-in from everyone so they are committed to this new system. It isn’t an event, but an ongoing process. Don’t be discouraged if things don’t turn out the way you want immediately. As people begin to see the benefits of the “5 Ws and How” of making meetings more productive, the momentum can help continue the process and reinforce the benefits for everyone.
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