How to end the overload of meetings?

More than half of employees spend the equivalent of one day a week in meetings. This trend has not changed with remote work. Alarmingly, 85% of executives report facing meetings they consider unnecessary and time-consuming. So what do we do?

You know The Office, the cult British series about the daily life of a paper sales company? In The Office, the days are filled with meetings that aren’t really meetings and that prevent employees from doing their work. They discuss trivial matters, personal lives, and gossip. They get tangled up, reconcile, and judge one another.

Here are some figures that help illustrate the extent of the problem we face: 

• Employees attend an average of 187 hours of meetings per year, which is the equivalent of 23 days of work.
• 1 in 4 meetings results in no decisions being made.
• Meetings last on average between 54 minutes and 1 hour and 30 minutes.
• Employees lose focus after 30 minutes.
• 10% of executives average 20 meetings per week.
• 1 in 3 employees admits to having fallen asleep during a meeting.

These figures come from articles or studies by Ipsos, Wisembly, Trends Tendance, etc. 

Poorly prepared managers

A few months ago, a study by Comet Meetings featured in Trends Tendance highlighted an important issue concerning meetings. The managers surveyed believed that the problem wasn’t the meetings themselves, but rather the lack of preparation and their quality.

This can be explained by the fact that 70% of employees have never received training on how to conduct a meeting. Among managers, the figures are equally alarming: just under half of them have ever received training on managing a meeting. To address the feeling of too many unnecessary meetings, the first step is to train those who lead them.

A clear economic cost 

Some companies pay close attention to visible expenses like marketing budgets, perks, and energy… and they try to manage or reduce these costs. However, they may be less observant when it comes to invisible costs like holding meetings. It could be insightful to consider how much certain meetings cost merely in terms of the attendance and time of employees. There are even cost calculators available today that can help with this calculation. The Harvard Business Review, for example, offers one.

A large American study from the summer of 2022 explained that by correlating the ratio of work time devoted to meetings with the cost of the employee, it can be concluded that unnecessary meetings cost companies with 100 employees around $2.5 million annually around the world. This figure even reaches $100 million for companies with more than 5,000 employees.

Real consequences on health 

Excessive meetings are detrimental not only to finances but also to mental health. The impact on employees caught in meeting tunnels is, indeed, real and multifaceted. It can lead, at a minimum, to frustration or boredom. However, more seriously, productivity, motivation, and engagement at work can also be sustainably affected by these repetitive or non-productive meetings.

Moreover, there’s another aspect generated by too many or too lengthy meetings that adversely affects mental health: distraction. We have all “left” the meeting we were in by turning to our computer or phone to work on something else for a few minutes (or even for the entire meeting). We have all tried to multitask, realizing we were really nowhere to be found. That’s why Henrik Stenmann, CEO of Internet Intelligence House Nordic, a digital strategy and marketing company, removed all screens during meetings to ensure that everyone stays focused.

What solutions can be implemented? 

In a recent article shared by Elon Musk, he offers some practical advice regarding his vision for meetings, summarized in 5 points:

1. Avoid large meetings, as they waste precious time.
2. Leave a meeting if you are not contributing anything.
3. Forget the chain of command and communicate directly with your colleagues.
4. Be clear and avoid technical jargon that slows down communication.
5. Abandon regular meetings in favor of texts or emails.

There are also other ways to facilitate exchanges between colleagues. This includes Stand-up meetings or Co-walking. The former are meetings where participants choose to stand voluntarily to ensure that discomfort leads to short, focused exchanges. The latter involves a small group walk (a maximum of four people). The idea is to facilitate interaction while getting some fresh air, which enhances productivity, morale, and creativity.

How to make a meeting effective? 

Combating an excess of meetings doesn’t mean we need to eliminate them altogether. The overall utility of meetings is indeed not in question. They allow people to meet, make decisions, build connections, and share feelings… In short, they help us move forward. The goal is to make them more efficient.

This can be achieved, in our opinion, through four steps.

1. Good Preparation

A meeting needs to be prepared. It’s essential to determine an agenda, a maximum time limit, and a clear objective. This agenda along with the explanation of what’s expected from the meeting should be shared in advance with the attendees so they can also prepare.

2. Involving Participants

Choosing the right people to invite to a meeting is as important as choosing the right topic. To make a meeting more effective, everyone needs to know why they are there and what is expected of them. Each participant should also have the opportunity to offer their input if needed.

3. Clear decision makers
   It is generally estimated that a decision-making meeting should not exceed 8 people. If it’s an information meeting with little to no interaction, there is no maximum participant number.

Caring for the Start and End

4. Timing is key
   At the start of the meeting, it’s important to outline what’s expected, explain the stakes, and remind everyone of the meeting’s duration. A brief introduction round can be helpful if participants do not know each other. At the end, it is essential to recap all decisions made during the meeting, specifically indicating who is responsible for any tasks, files, or contacts, and importantly, what the deadlines are. Some meetings are ineffective because they are too vague and leave certain points unclear. This type of meeting can lead to misunderstandings.
5. Follow-Up

A meeting is part of a larger process that extends beyond its physical duration. Once it’s concluded, a brief summary should be provided. If necessary, follow-ups on tasks or the progress on discussed topics should be addressed afterward.

No-meetings days

Have you ever thought about going without meetings? Not just one or two in your day, but none at all? Some companies have taken the plunge and imposed days with zero meetings. The results are surprising. According to the authors of the study, “The Surprising Impact of Meeting-Free Days,” published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, just eliminating one weekly meeting day leads to “increased employee autonomy, greater job satisfaction, improved productivity, and reduced stress.” Notably, the results observed were even better among companies that only allowed two meeting days per week.

Source: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-surprising-impact-of-meeting-free-days/ 

Saying no to a meeting 

It’s not always easy to say no and decline an invitation to a meeting. Fear of judgment, concern about appearing non-committal… There are several good or bad reasons to refuse. To determine if a meeting is truly useful, we can ask ourselves three fundamental questions: 1. Will this meeting generate value? 2. Am I the right person for this meeting? 3. Is the topic a priority for me? If you answer no to at least two of these questions, it makes sense to opt out of the meeting.

And if you’re looking for ways to decline an invitation, the English-language site Indeed offers several suggestions.

Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-decline-a-meeting