Making time for meetings
Last week’s SmartBrief on Workforce poll question was What percentage of your work day is spent attending meetings?
- 1 to 25% – 56%
- 26 to 50% – 23%
- 51 to 75% – 13%
- 0 – 7%
- 76 to 100% – 1%
Meetings are a part of being a manager. Some people love ‘em; others endure them while fantisizing about getting back to their “real work.” What are some of your strategies and tips for keeping your meetings on track? Share them here, and I’ll feature the best suggestions in SmartBrief on Workforce.
Posted by Jim Meredith on February 25th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Wow–almost half the people responding spend more than 2 hours a day in "meetings"! These sound like a problematic workplaces, but maybe they're just poorly designed workplaces.
I don't think I am atypical when I say that the greatest value I provide to my company is not when I am sitting in my workstation, but when I am out and about talking with others. These collaborative conversations are learning for me, mentoring for some, transfers of important information, two-heads-are-better-than-one idea generation, group project development, decision-making, building social trust and shared values, and other similar activities that affect the performance and position of my organization.
In a typical workplace–one of "workstations" and "conference rooms"–these exchanges have no place other than an office (hierarchical, not collaborative) or a meeting room (formal and scheduled). As a result, projects slow down, decisions get delayed, mentoring becomes "training," some people posture and others surrender to "authority," and the organization, burdened by a formal scheduled culture, slides backward.
Try this–tear down the walls, open up the space, scatter tables and chairs throughout the office, and announce your awareness that "work" looks different now.
Watch people resolve a problem now rather than wait for a room next Tuesday. Watch people overhear a conversation and learn from it. Watch people give their knowledge, tips and tricks to others as they need and get more effective development that way. Watch innovation happen more quickly and your return on time invested skyrocket.
Then generally watch as people do lots of productive stuff out in the open talking with others, but surprisingly, when you next take the poll, find that they say they are in "meetings" only once a week! (And find yourself beginning to talk about growth rather than compression!)