Manager's Portfolio: Meetings Take a Beating

It's 9:30 a.m. and the boss is still talking. Those with a good view of the clock groan silently as another minute ticks by, while others gaze furtively at their watches beneath the conference room table. All are counting the seconds before they regain their freedom—the freedom to return to more productive work.

Another Wednesday morning staff meeting drones on with the same general theme of increasing productivity to raise more funds, boost alumni support, identify philanthropists and foundations, and get parents involved in advancement efforts. More often than not, the people sitting in such meetings think that if they could dispense with these 90-minute "brainstorming sessions," perhaps they'd have more time to do all of those things. They're not alone. We all need to spend more time working and less time talking about it!

A multitude of studies have quantified what most of us already know: On the pretext of productivity, workers across the globe waste millions of hours and billions of dollars annually in conference room conclaves. It's no surprise, then, that for a price, legions of experts, consultants, and meeting mavens claim they can cut meeting times in half, presumably making us more efficient, happier, and more fulfilled managers and staff members.

Many of these meeting facilitators postulate that the key to embracing meeting productivity is discomfort. They suggest removing chairs from conference rooms, forcing participants to stand throughout meetings; banning snacks and coffee; and holding meetings in dim, stuffy, and cramped quarters. Who would want to ramble on under these conditions?

These gimmicks might reduce the length of many meetings, but they also undoubtedly decrease their value. Claustrophobia, hunger, and exhaustion are serious distractions, not good working conditions. And they hardly are effective substitutes for common-sense planning, an environment that facilitates teamwork, and a professional approach to problem solving.

To meet or not to meet?

Shakespeare probably didn't write plays by brainstorming with a committee of other writers. Some things are best done alone or in small groups. Before deciding whether to hold a meeting, consider what you want to accomplish. Do you want to prompt action or impart information? Too often, managers hold 40-minute meetings to disseminate mundane information that they could convey more efficiently in an e-mail that employees can read in two minutes.

Good managers know that time is a precious commodity. Before scheduling a meeting, consider whether it truly is worth the expense, which you easily can calculate: A one-hour meeting with 15 staffers who earn an average of $20 an hour costs at least $300. If the meeting wasn't necessary or productive, that money is lost.

You need to consider if there are more efficient ways to achieve the results you hope to get from a meeting. Must an entire department be present, or just a few people who will be responsible for a given project? How often must you meet on a regular basis? If the main reason to hold a staff meeting is that today is Wednesday and you always meet on Wednesday, you might want to pause before taking your staff members away from their desks and computers so they can chat for an hour about what they're not doing.

Set an agenda for action

At the end of most meetings, hours of discussion lead to the same firm and decisive action: Schedule another meeting! That's not exactly inspirational.

By focusing on a goal, you will find it easier to develop an agenda. With a solid outline that starts with the problem that needs to be solved, participants are more likely to stay on task and avoid tangents. Ensure the agenda is flexible enough to accommodate group interaction but firm enough to keep you headed toward your goal.

Leaders needed

A solid meeting needs a solid leader. A good team leader is a facilitator, not a dictator. Indeed, if you want to dictate policy and make unilateral decisions for an entire group, a memo usually will do the trick. In fact, when a manager does not need or want team input, a meeting, which implies interaction, might send the wrong message entirely.

Although you should welcome and encourage good ideas, productive meetings are not entirely democratic. As the meeting leader, you set the agenda, perhaps after input from colleagues. You ensure that the group sticks to that agenda to accomplish the goal.

Free-for-all brainstorming sessions are fine if unrestricted brainstorming is the objective of the meeting. If the goal is more specific, you need to ensure the discussion is more structured, particularly in larger groups where individuals might have their own agendas.

End with action

Based on the agenda, you must move the team to a decision and have a plan to implement the decision. This means that you must assign concrete tasks to certain participants, establish a timetable, and decide on a method of reporting back to the team—preferably by memo or e-mail or, if absolutely necessary, in another meeting. But if the only thing that gets accomplished is setting a date for another meeting, maybe it's time to remove the conference room chairs and banish the coffee.