Avoid Time-wasting Meetings

02/26/07

Meetings are among the worst threats you have to controlling your time and hence getting things done. As the eminent Peter Drucker once said, “[O]ne either meets or one works.”

Many meetings are necessary. Some are quite useful. At least half are neither. We have too many of them, and most are so poorly run that whatever value they may have had disappears.

First rule: Don’t automatically give in to those who try to cram meetings into your schedule (unless it’s your boss).

Ask:

Do I have to attend?

If I must attend, can I limit the time I spend there?

What can I personally do to ensure an effective meeting? For instance, ask for an agenda so you can prepare. (The meeting initiator’s probable response: “An agenda? Am I supposed to have an agenda?”) If there’s not a stated goal for the meeting, ask the person who called it to formulate one. Without a goal, the meeting is sure to meander.

In the worst case, you have to attend a meeting you know will turn out to be a total time-waster. If possible, remain respectfully aloof so people know you’re not there to talk about daycare or why the senior vice president got fired. If you’re lucky, people will decide you’re a threat to their desire to waste a few hours and stop inviting you to their meetings.

Using your best political skills, question the value of these kinds of meetings:

Regular meetings. “We always have a meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.” Why? Do you still need one? Some-times merely asking the question is enough to change tradition.
Status meetings.Can email inform people better? The worst is having a meeting when nothing has changed.
“Pep” meetings.Some managers hold these meetings for no other reason than to congratulate one another for work well done. It’s supposed to be a good way to motivate people, but it’s arguable whether it works.

In the meetings you lead and attend, demand value even if you become known as a curmudgeon. If nothing else, people might stop asking you to attend senseless meetings.