Do Tedious and Boring Meetings Waste Most of Your Time?

You know the kind of thing - the meeting starts late because most of the people arrive late. Some people don't turn up at all.

Most people haven't read any of the information they were sent. You haven't prepared either, because you were too busy in other meetings.

No one has completed the actions they agreed to last time.

People answer calls on their phones during the meeting, or dash out to answer them.

Just as you think it's about to finish so you can rush off to your next meeting, (for which you are already late) your colleagues bring up extra items of "Any Other Business" or "AOB".

At the end of the meeting, no progress has been made. All you have to look forward to is another meeting.

Sound familiar? So why do meetings like this happen? And what can you do about it?

My Meetings Are Eating My Other Meetings

A Grapevine reader, Alan, called recently complaining he just didn't have time to go to all his meetings because there were too many, they were too long and he couldn't get his work done in between.

We started to dig. He's pretty senior, so he runs most of the meetings he goes to. We looked at the next one he had coming up. I asked what the objective of the meeting was. After a pause he said: "To discuss the new building project."

As you will know that isn't an objective. "Discussing" is just something you spend your time doing. I asked him what preparation he expected the members of his team to have done when they arrived.

It turned out he hadn't sent them an agenda yet (the meeting was the next day). He confessed that most of the time most of them arrived not having read anything he sent them in advance, so he'd stopped bothering.

"Have you agreed ground rules for meetings with your team?" I asked.

Alan groaned: "This is all my fault, isn't it? I called you so I could blame them, but it's me."

"Yes." I said. "But the good news is that this means you can do something about it."

Two weeks later Alan told me he had generated 10 extra hours a week already. He was now getting home in time to have dinner with his family. And that was just the start.

The Two Key Reasons Meetings Are So Bad

1. There is no clear objective for the meeting.
2. Those attending the meeting have no clear objective.


There are only three reasons to go to any meeting:

1. Get information.
2. Make sure others have information.
3. Ensure that the decision being made at the meeting meets some specific criteria.

So, work out your objectives for the meetings you need to go to. If they are to get information ask yourself; is there a quicker, easier way of getting that information? Like not going to the meeting?

If your objective is to make sure others have some information, do you really have to go to the meeting? Can you just email them notes?

If you need to ensure that the decision meets a set of criteria, it may well be that you do need to be there. But if you are clear about your criteria and you discover what the criteria the others have are at the start, then your meeting can be much more effective and shorter.

Objectives Are Not Just For Appraisals

Having a clear objective in any situation helps you to be more effective. It focuses you on what you need to achieve and stops you wasting time on other, irrelevant issues.