Are you experiencing days where you are running from one meeting to another? Or zooming from one virtual meeting to another during this work-from-home arrangement? Or you simply zone out?
You know, and I know we are not alone. The question is NOT how many meetings we have to attend, but how many of them are actually useful and productive. According to Doodle’s 2019 State of Meetings report, the cost of poorly organised meetings in 2019 will reach $399 billion in the U.S. and $58 billion in the U.K. We don’t have the numbers in Asia. Still, we’ve attended enough to know it’s costly on productivity.
So why do we put up with ineffective meetings? Sometimes it could be lack of awareness, lack of discipline or lack of skills in facilitating meetings. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, it wrote: “At an unconscious (or conscious) level most managers actually like meetings, and for several reasons.” Here are the two key reasons:
- Meetings strengthen relationships – Meetings sometimes serve as a community gathering and an important social outlet. Did you share what you’ve been cooking or baking working from home? Before you know it, much of the time has spent on social “chit-chats.”
- Attending meetings is a sign of status – some people are important, which is why they are needed in meetings, and they bring along a dozen of back-benchers to take notes. Agree?
But fret not, we’ve come up with 11 ways to make your meetings count and productive. If you are not the person chairing meetings, send this infographic to the person who is. Your colleagues may thank you for it.
