Meetings are thieves

A couple of months ago, right before Christmas, our family lost our mountain bikes.

By ‘lost’ I mean a thief came to our house in the middle of the night and took them while we were sleeping.

I cannot explain to you the feeling. Injustice. Anger. Disappointment.

At work, I get to meet with our wonderful clients most weeks. Our clients are all shapes and sizes, from small private software companies to large government agencies. One thing they have in common: meetings.

Meetings, of course, are extraordinarily important. It’s where ideas germinate. It’s where information is shared. It’s where culture is nurtured.

Over the years I have observed the size and length of meetings grow. Like our appetite for digital services, they seem to be stealing more and more of our time.

We should reconsider how we do meetings and what is important to us.

The problem

Meetings are expensive

Working as a consultant has commercial realities. People’s time costs money, so that cost needs to be recovered by delighting our clients with our work.

But in fact, I’d like to argue that meetings are costing you too. That cost just might not be as visible. So, we need to get the most out of them.

How much could your meetings be costing you?

My math, based on my observations of average team size and average salaries, suggests that:

· a one hour team meeting costs approx. $400

· a manager’s meeting costs approx. $500

· an exec meeting costs approx. $600

And how many of these do you do in a week?

Meetings take time

We hear from our clients all the time that there is not enough time in the day.

It is all too familiar. We get our best work done either before our colleagues arrive, or after they leave. This, of course, is not sustainable or desirable. Remember, work is a never-ending process, you can never finish it.

What proportion of your working week are you in meetings?

Meetings have lots of people in them

Have you ever noticed there are people in a meeting that don’t participate? Have you noticed some that aren’t even listening? Are some of them from the same working team, all listening to the same thing?

What should you do?

Be (very) discerning when inviting participants

Only invite people who will positively contribute. Or if their attendance would be of value to their professional development or work priorities.

One of Hubspot’s staff, Hugo Welke, recently reflected that when he draws up an attendee list for a meeting he asks himself four questions:

• Will they have an opinion?
• Do they want to be involved?
• Will they contribute or learn something?
• Do we need to agree on the topic?

If you don’t have a good answer to any of these questions, leave them off the list.

Small meetings move quickly and generally stay on track. Encourage participants to share-back to their teams in their regular catch-up or distribute their bullet-notes through their team’s digital collaboration channel.

Pick your times carefully

I love to read about personal productivity. One thing I’ve come to learn is that I have a superpower-time. I am my most productive between 8am and 11am. If I get 2 hours uninterrupted, with Brain.FM in my ears, I can do two days’ work. This is true, I promise.

Why is this relevant? I protect it. I need it. So whenever I’m able to, I avoid meetings in the mornings.

Book your meetings in for when you’re not that productive. For me, after lunch is for meetings, phone calls and emails.

Make an agenda (even for short meetings)

If you’re organising a meeting, think about the purpose, what you want to get out of it, then schedule the topics that need to be covered to get there. Above all, stick to your agenda and don’t be afraid to ask tangents and sideline conversations to be taken offline. Your meeting has an intended outcome!

Time-box your meetings

Meetings don’t need to be a minimum of 30 minutes or 1 hour. Have a think about your agenda and how long topics should really take. If one topic will cause a two-way conversation between two passionate colleagues, make a short meeting with just those two about that topic. Be respectful of other participant’s time. They love to get work done too.

What are your ideas?

• How do you make your meetings more valuable?
• Is there a silver bullet?
• Would the tips above work for you and your colleagues?