Course basket

If time is money, how much of it are we spending in work meetings that never seem to go anywhere? A lot, if the Harvard Business Review is to be believed: its writers studied one large company and found that 300,000 hours a year went into supporting its executive committee’s meetings.

So getting meetings under control could be one way to raise productivity, with less talking and more action. If you’re itching to tackle your to-do list while meetings drone on, take a look at these ideas for cutting them short.

Productive meetings

1. Give up on regular status meetings

Catch-ups, updates, status meetings– whatever you call them, they take up a lot of time and can quickly become a chore. Sure, you need to keep key colleagues informed about your progress, but does everyone need to pile into a conference room?

Ken Norton, a product partner at GV, the investment arm of Google, says it’s best to find other ways to circulate progress reports, from emails to instant messenger groups. As he puts it, “The best meeting is one you don’t have to have.”

2. Make sure someone takes control

Lack of focus is a frequent culprit for meetings that drag on. “If I don’t have an agenda in front of me, I walk out,” says Annette Catino, Chief Executive of the QualCare Alliance Network. “It’s very important to me to focus people and to keep them focused.”

Avoid meandering meetings by ensuring that one person is in charge of the meeting and its agenda. If someone gets off track, the Chairperson can gently steer things back by referring to the next item or decision point.

3. Keep them small and perfectly formed

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos isn’t one to waste time, which is why he invented the “two pizza rule” for meetings. If there are more attendees than could be fed by two pizzas, the meeting is cancelled.

With larger meetings, everyone can feel obliged to have their say, even if it means rehashing points made by others. Keeping them small helps everyone get to the point.

4. Tear up your calendar and start afresh

If step-by-step improvements to your meetings culture aren’t working, Jayson DeMeyers, founder of AudienceBloom, suggests taking drastic action. “I propose the cold turkey method: eliminate every meeting on your calendar right now.”

Clearing your calendar is one way to find out which meetings are really important: if you miss them, you can reinstate them. But you may just discover that you’ve reclaimed a whole lot of time without missing much at all.

CWA Logo

General Enquiries
01553 761 144

Student Services
01553 815 271

Enquiry

If you would like to ask a question, please complete the form below and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Invalid Input
Please tell us your first name
Please tell us your surname
Please enter a valid email address
Invalid Input




Please select the types which best describe you
Please tell us what you are enquiring about
This field is required
Invalid Input
Invalid Input