What would you do if you suddenly discovered that you had 240 hours? That’s 10 full days and nights, over the year to do exactly what you wanted. Travel perhaps? Spend more quality time with your family? Take up a new hobby? The options are limitless.
It’s a nice thought, but the reality is that those 10 days per year are most likely already spent in unproductive meetings at work. Not so much fun.
The Cost of Unproductive Meetings
If you don’t believe us, check out these startling statistics from the Harvard Business Review. According to research by Steven G Rogelberg, the average employee wastes up to 6 hours per week in meetings with no real agenda or productive outcomes.
Now, let’s imagine a corporation with a workforce of 1000 people. Assuming that on average, 5 hours per week are spent in unproductive meetings equates to 240,000 hours (based on a 48-week working year) lost in productivity annually. According to the ONS the median UK salary was £37,430 as of April 2024. That equates to an average hourly rate of £18.72 or a staggering £4.49m per year in lost productivity across the organisation.
Based on this, it’s not surprising that every week, participants in our workshops share with us that many of their meetings are not as useful, meaningful, or as productive as they could be and that considerable time and effort is spent preparing for and presenting at meetings that their colleagues have no interest in.
So, we think the New Year is an excellent time to press the reset button on your meetings to ensure they deliver what you want and need for the year ahead.
Strategies to Enhance Meeting Productivity in the New Year
Many of us use online collaboration tools to track the status and progress of projects, so when we get together, either in person or in a hybrid meeting situation, it should be about making decisions rather than simply updating colleagues and sharing information. But old habits die hard, so here are a few tips on how to shake up the status quo and get the most out of your meetings in the coming year:
- Is there an agenda? It’s amazing how many meetings still take place without an agenda, especially routine meetings. Make sure the desired outcomes are clearly stated in advance and supply pre-reading material ahead of time to ensure everyone is up to speed. Allocate a specific time slot for each point of discussion and try to stick to it. The meeting chair – and there should always be one – is responsible for keeping the discussion on track and on time.
- Who really needs to be there? Only invite those who are directly involved in the decision-making process. Meetings aren’t about making people feel included, they are about getting things done. Try to remember the two-pizza rule made popular by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to ensure meetings are productive and efficient. The principle is simple: never have a meeting where two pizzas wouldn’t feed the entire group. Assuming the average pizza feeds three people, the group should consist of six or less people.
Why? Smaller groups lead to greater participation, are more focused and waste less time. If wider discussions are necessary, break into smaller groups and assign specific tasks to each group. If you have been invited to a meeting and you don’t think it is necessary for you to be there, then speak up and politely decline the invite.
- Avoid meeting bloat. The opposite of the two-pizza rule is meeting bloat. We have all been in meetings where 50% of the content is irrelevant for 50% of the people 75% of the time. Meeting bloat is too often a reality when lots of people are invited to attend meetings where, in fact, only a small proportion of what is covered is relevant to them. So rather than attend all the meetings, they should just come for the item that impacts them. A separate meeting could be arranged to focus on their specific area, projects, and issues.
- Reevaluate the current meeting schedule. Daily huddles, weekly progress meetings, team catch-up sessions, senior stakeholder meetings – are these all still necessary and relevant to the new hybrid way of working? Add up all the time you spend in regular meetings and try to establish how much of this time is productive and critical. Sure, it’s nice to get together with your colleagues, especially as few of us are in the office five days per week, but is there something else you could be doing that is more productive? Meetings could be fortnightly instead of weekly, or collaboration tools might be a better way to work. Taking a fresh look at your team meeting schedule may well lead to a more efficient way of working.
- Use tools to help you evaluate meeting effectiveness.it might be worth using a decision-making framework like DACI to help you to take a fresh look at how your current meetings are structured and who gets invited.
DACI stands for Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed and assigns clear roles to each stakeholder.
Driver: The individual responsible for driving the decision-making process to completion. They manage timelines, gather input, and ensure progress.
Approver: The person with the final authority to approve decisions. Typically, a senior leader or project owner.
Contributor: Individuals who provide input, expertise, or analysis to inform the decision-making process. They do not make the final decision but influence it significantly.
Informed: Stakeholders who need to be updated on the decision but are not directly involved in the process.
For more complex projects, there is also the RASCI framework, which incorporates supportive roles into the matrix.
Establish meeting-free days. The concept of meeting-free days is rooted in improving productivity, creativity and employee well-being and has been adopted by many corporations post-Covid. These days allow teams to have uninterrupted periods of time where they can focus on strategic thinking and deep work. Deep work is a concept developed by Cal Newport in his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success. By eliminating interruptions, employees are more able to sustain periods of high concentration and dive into complex tasks and ideas.
To get the most out of these days, it is best to plan ahead. Identify up to 3 priorities for the day. Then, allocate your time in 90-minute to 2-hour blocks for each task and take short breaks in between sessions. Minimising (or even better, switching off) your notifications during this time will help hugely.
Not only is this time more productive and creative, but it also allows employees to feel more in control of their schedules and to recharge mentally.
Ideally set a consistent schedule for meeting-free days and communicate the purpose and policy clearly so that colleagues get used to the idea of being uninterrupted, and refrain from interrupting other team members.
Organisations such as Shopify, and Facebook have successfully implemented meeting-free days, reporting improved employee satisfaction and productivity. The approach is particularly beneficial in industries that demand high levels of focus and creativity.
Checklist for Conducting Productive and Inclusive Meetings
Once you’ve established when and why meetings should happen it’s important to get into a routine of establishing a consistent best practice approach to ensure they are always inclusive, productive, engaging and respectful of everyone’s time.
Here is a handy checklist that you can use to make your meetings count.
1. Define the Purpose and Agenda. Establish the meeting’s purpose and be clear about what you want to achieve. Prepare and distribute an agenda and any background materials in advance. Include topics, time allocations, and who is responsible for leading each discussion.
2. Invite the right people. Only invite those who are necessary for the discussion. Use the DACI or RASCI model if you are not sure.
3. Check the technology. If you are incorporating presentation elements into the meeting, make sure everything is working, including access for remote participants.
4. Set ground rules. Establish at the start of the meeting when and how to raise questions. Ensure sufficient time is allocated for discussion and avoid off-topic conversations.
5. Time management. Keep to the schedule. Start and end the meeting on time – this is a good way to show respect for your colleagues’ time and encourages punctuality. If it’s a larger meeting, assign someone to keep track of time and ensure discussions stay within the allocated time slots.
6. Encourage participation. Create an environment where everyone feels able and comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. This is especially important for quieter team members and those attending remotely. Hybrid meetings are especially tricky to manage so check out our top tips for successfully Running Hybrid Meetings.
As a remote meeting attendee, it’s often harder to get your voice heard if you are not in the room. So make sure your camera is on and use the chat function if required.
7. Stay focused. Keep discussions on track. If new topics arise, note them for future meetings instead of diving into them immediately.
8. Make a record of decisions and action points. Assign someone to take notes on key discussions, decisions made, and action items – with those responsible, together with deadlines. This helps to maintain accountability and follow-up.
9. Follow-up. Ensure decisions and next steps with timelines are circulated after the meeting so that team responsibilities are clear.
10. Regularly evaluate and identify areas for improvement. Remember to solicit feedback from meeting attendees regularly to understand what’s working well and what could be improved.
The hidden cost of unproductive meetings results in significant time and financial losses annually for many companies. Even the most seasoned individuals and organisations can benefit from taking a fresh approach to meetings in order to reclaim lost time, enhance efficiency, and create a culture of intentional and impactful meetings.
How Our Communication Training Can Revolutionise Your Meetings
Good communication and presentation skills are an essential part of making any meeting more effective and productive. If you’d like to significantly improve your presentation and meeting outcomes with training that is personalised to your development needs and tailored for your business, then why not get in touch?
For nearly 20 years we have been known as the Business Presentation Skills Experts, training and coaching thousands of people in an A-Z of global and local organisations. View our presentation skills training and coaching reviews to check out what they say about our programmes.
We have a wide range of customised corporate training solutions, both in-person and online to choose from, each of which can be tailored to your specific business needs.
