Meetings: the Ultimate time Zapper

In a 2012 article from Psychology Today; a survey of executives said the that 20-25% of time spent in meetings is wasted. Another survey said that 45% of executives felt that their employees would be more productive if their firms banned meetings for at least one day a week. I came from a world where meetings were a main stay - part of the culture. I was in a meeting for one full business day at least once a month. My personal experience echoes the feedback found in the surveys of  this article. While meetings may be part of your corporate culture, if you are seeking to take control of your time, you may want to employ these ideas to ensure that your time is well spent.

Have an Agenda  While formal corporate meetings usually have an agenda, sometimes we can find ourselves in a smaller, or even a one-on-one meeting where there is not a clear agenda. Have a writtenagenda.  If you are meeting one-on-one with someone, a simple email saying we are going to talk about X works. Include a start time and an end time. Most importantly, make sure that people have the agenda before the meeting!

Ask for participants to be prepared - along the same lines of the agenda; make sure that that participants know how to prepare for the meeting. If you are a boss asking for a meeting with an employee, make sure they know what they need to bring: sales reports, action plans, etc. A meeting to discuss a change in corporate policy may require participants to read the proposed changes and prepare their feedback and thoughts. If you are the participant and are not sure what prep work is expected, ask! Take Charge  Don't assume that the person who called the meeting is going to take charge and keep people on track. If you see people going off the agenda, speak up and remind them that you have a finite amount of time; invite them to take their current, unrelated conversation offline. Avoid the informational update meetings There was a time where I had to be on a conference call for one hour every week to have someone read an informational update newsletter that was created by my employer. A complete time zapper! Avoid calling a meeting to discuss informational updates. Rather, ensure that your team knows where to find the information. Consider your Guest List wisely More participants equal longer meetings; so while you may be looking for to create an environment of "open communication" by having everyone at the table,  you could be killing productivity and creating frustration. Make sure that your guest list only includes pertinent people. If other individuals are important to only part of the meeting, set up the agenda in a way that they can come and go as necessary.

Don't be a re-hasher -  Teaching Junior Achievement last spring, I asked a class of 3rd graders to answer an open ended question. Once 1 person gave an answer I asked, "does anyone else have something different to share?" I proceeded to hear 3 more 3rd graders share the same answer! Cute when you are 8, not appropriate in a work meeting. If someone has already shared your point of view; don't chime in and re-share it. If you are asked to share, simply state, "You know, Bob really said it for me." If you are facilitating the meeting, be sure to ask for new thoughts, ideas. (hopefully the participants will do better than 3rd graders)

Consider whether or not you even need a meeting - In this day of technology, we can communicate information between multiple people across the world. There are many Project Management platforms, for free or for a nominal fee, where you can manage a larger project and communicate. A meeting to do a status update is not as necessary. Consider canceling these meetings, and working on the project during that time instead! Then, use a meeting when a dialogue really needs to occur. For more tips for keeping meetings on track, check out this great article in Psychology Today and as always, share with me your ideas