If you’re on time, you’re late… How important is making the most of your meetings
We all love virtual meetings…don’t we?
The rich array of backdrops ranging from the open plan office with the wrap-around windows, or the home office flanked by a wall of blue lockers (you know the one) or the classic blur option which only serves to deflect attention as colleagues try to work out what your home looks like and what books you read. The wry smiles that accompany that all too familiar “you’re on mute” moment; the time spent waiting for everyone to join, and the occasional and unexpected appearance of a family member or an inquisitive pet. Well, according to recent research, it appears that maybe we don’t love them quite as much after all. The virtual meetings – not the pets or the family.
In the BC (Before Covid) era, the average commute time in the UK was around 73 minutes a day. Since then, working patterns have changed and the concept of working at home has taken hold, although for many in the world of health and social care - by the very nature of the job - it hasn’t, and neither will it any time soon.
But for others, has the time saved from the commute resulted in more effective and productive use of our precious time?
A consistent theme that perpetuates the challenge of time versus effective delivery is the sheer volume of meetings. Conflicting priorities can make it feel sometimes like you are going from one meeting to the next, with no gap in between. In effect, people can and do join back-to-back meetings with no preparation time, potentially looking at the minutes and actions for the first time during the very meeting they are in (come on, we’ve all done it). The natural consequence being that instead of spending time concentrating on the 3rd D – Delivery - we run the risk of going back a step to remind ourselves about the context - in effect rolling back to the debate stage, and possibly jumping straight to the unwelcome 4th D - Delay! And that’s not a good place to be.
Having taken a steer from my good friend Google, Booqed have done some research on this, and I don’t think the findings will be a surprise.
More than 30 hours a month are spent in what people consider “unproductive” meetings, while just under 50% felt “overwhelmed by the number of meetings they attended.” Sound familiar? I thought so.
And when we turn up, delays in starting meetings on time equate to around 3 days a year. And then, when they do start, it all gets a little worse:
Over 90% have daydreamed during meetings.
39% have slept during meetings.
43% say that “unclear actions leads to confusion.’
40% of people felt that there was “not enough time to do the rest of my work.’
Nearly 40% believe that ‘bad (meeting) organisation results in a loss of focus on projects.
73% have worked on other things during meetings.
Surely not…
So, in the spirit of positive follows negative, what can be done? Here are a few things worth considering:
Cancel all meetings (ok, maybe not my best advice, but on a bad day, it can sound like a great idea!)
Arrange a series of new meetings to talk about how meetings can be more effective. Invite lots of people and don't send out an agenda prior to the meeting.
Apply the 3D principles to enable you to make each meeting count. Does the agenda have specific outcomes – debate, decision, delivery? Get. things. done.
Set out very clear objectives at the start and stick to a clear agenda.
Repeat step (4) at every meeting and during every meeting too.
If your meeting is at 11am, make sure the previous one ends at 10:30, at the latest. That’s not so you can prep from scratch for the 11am; it's just so you can give yourself some headspace.
If you are the Chair and the meeting is for an hour, chair it well so that it is an hour – or shorter.
Don’t debate previous actions in the meeting - come to the meeting having done them.
Invest in preparation time so meetings become less about reminders, and more about deliverables.
Give the room some personality by making sure the atmosphere provides the catalyst for progress, challenge, and action. We should take our jobs seriously but we should take ourselves less so.
Allocate time at the end of the meeting to make sure everyone is clear on the next steps, whether it addresses the objective and if it moves things forward.
Choose attendees wisely. Less is more.
Well that’s all pretty obvious, I guess… but is it? Do we all practice this every time? Getting this part right will result in more effective meetings, whilst releasing the most scarce of resources - time.
…Oh, and by the way, the above research also reported that 76% of people preferred face to face meetings. I’m just saying...
Source: Booqed via Doodle, Ovum, AskCody, ReadyTalk, Atlassian, Dialpad, Wundamail, and WSJ.