Meetings can be valuable and this is why. They allow attendees to share ideas, resolve problems, and most importantly, provide a real-time face-to-face interaction. They can also be extremely useful in response to an urgent situation when you need to quickly identify the best course of action utilizing each individual’s unique experiences and perspective. There are several valuable benefits to an organized and well executed meeting, but nevertheless meetings can be a huge money pit.

Consider the following situation, 8 employees attend a 1 hour meeting that’s equivalent to 8 working hours. In other words that is on the average an entire work day for 1 employee, equivalent to about 20% of time spent in meetings. Keep in mind the benefits of meetings while weighing this against the cost of meeting. Instead of eliminating meetings carefully consider the need for a meeting, and use these tips to increase productivity and efficiency at your next meeting.

  • Have a firm agenda. Keep everyone on track with a precise timeframe to ensure everything is covered and employees can return to work.
  • Have clear and concise goals that solve specific problems. There should be a problem or situation in order to set a meeting.
  • Assign a meeting facilitator. A good meeting facilitator will ensure a meeting covers the agenda and keeps everyone on task.
  • Do not invite the entire company. If the company is facing troubles with accounting software it doesn’t make sense to invite the sales department.

Let’s look briefly at the first point because this is often the primary source of wasted time. Quite often meetings are derailed by moving off the topic, or becoming too carried away on a subject only relevant to a couple of the attendees. When this happens the facilitator needs expedite by stepping in and saying “We need to move on”. Without a clear understanding of the meeting’s agenda and goals it can often be difficult to realize this has happened. As Gold Five said to Gold Leader in Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope, “Stay on target”.

So before your next meeting; have an agenda, set clear and concise goals, make an attendance list, and finally assign a facilitator. Meetings must be conducted properly to be effective and efficient for the success of your company. Isn’t that the reason we have meetings?