The 30-Minute Meeting Challenge
Whilst the leadership style is crucial to performance and output, the structure of teams and organisations carries even greater importance given that this determines how the leader’s vision is delivered.
Along with clarity around roles and interdependencies, and shared terminology and working practices, it is the structure of meetings which – in our experience and that of many others – is responsible for the biggest negative impact on productivity and performance.
Back in 2020, marketeer and cartoonist (or ‘Marketoonist’ as he is often better referred to) Tom Fishburne created one of his iconic cartoons titled ‘Why are we meeting?’. In the piece, the central character is commenting, “The agenda for this meeting is to figure out why we are having this meeting”
Like much of his work, it is simple, dry, honest and brilliant observational humour.
However, the fact that we can all relate to this is also incredibly sad as it painfully captures the many meetings we have all attended at some point in our careers and where we have asked that very same question: why are we meeting?
Before going any further, we’re not trying to make the case that all meetings are pointless as we know that the majority of meetings are arranged with the very best of intentions.
All of us appreciate that organisations, teams, collaborators need to meet – in person or remotely – and meetings have the potential to be the most efficient way for a group of people to come together for discussions and to make decisions.
One internet search returns the definition of a meeting as “…an assembly of people for a particular purpose”.
But somewhere we have collectively lost sight of why we have meetings; even with an agenda, we become easily distracted or head off on a tangent with our particular [primary] purpose eroded as a consequence.
We believe the blame for bad meetings sits squarely with time.
A recent Forbes article cited a Harvard Business School study which stated, “The CEO’s most precious resource is time, and yet over 70% of a typical day is occupied by meetings…” with further research revealing that a company’s vice president would spend over 40-hours each week in meetings.
Consider also that these figures were collated in pre-Covid times when meetings were primarily held at the workplace; overlay this with blended, hybrid working practices and it’s not unreasonable to suggest that these figures could be significantly increased.
To compound this further, the research did not afford statistics for meeting preparation, the planning and pre-reading that would underpin the all important agenda, nor the element of ‘switching time’ where time is lost post-meeting as participants take an estimated 15-minutes to refocus and become productive once again.
How do we reduce this time, and how do we do meetings better?
There’s no ‘golden arrow’ solution that’s going to miraculously solve the issue, rather a combination of approaches which we believe can make better use of everyone’s time and achieve better outcomes for our meetings.
Firstly, and quite obviously, the answer to reducing time is to have short, concise meetings in which the focus remains on what needs to be done.
Should any issues arise during the meeting, do not try to resolve them straight away but instead deal with them separately and only with the people who are directly involved.
Which leads us on to the second recommendation, prioritise and only invite people who really need to be in the meeting.
Further Harvard Business Review research showed that the more time people spent in large groups, so their engagement typically decreases. This goes on to suggest that “People would be more productive and engaged if they could spend less time in meetings and more time preparing for them.”
The third recommendation is inclusivity and ensuring the meeting culture is one where everyone is encouraged to participate and with an equal say. This isn’t to provide a ‘town hall’ platform for people to have their say for the sake of it – remember our first point, we must keep our meetings concise – but there has to be a culture where constructive participation is encouraged.
The Marketoonist article also reminded us of the MOJO approach, created by Innosight for DBS Bank to encourage efficient, effective, open, and collaborative meetings within their organisation.
The ‘MO’ is the Meeting Owner, who is responsible for ensuring that the meeting has a clear agenda, that it starts and ends on time, and that all attendees are given an equal say. The role of the ‘JO’ (or Joyful Observer) is to help the meeting run efficiently and encourage participation.
The fourth and final recommendation is to check your diary, determine the purpose of the meeting and decide if you really need to attend. Might your time be better spent just reviewing the minutes? Does the meeting need to happen? Might attendees’ time be better spent if it were cancelled?
Obviously having an agenda will enable you to answer these questions, but if the meeting is to proceed then ensure the agenda is circulated well in advance and that it is adhered to (both tasks for the MO).
The 30-Minute Meeting Challenge
Back to our first point and the one which we consider to be the most important, given the sheer amount of time that is being accrued by key personnel in meetings: keeping meetings short.
Regardless of whichever calendar you use for your appointments, chances are that the default is 1-hour increments and the majority of us are collectively culpable for adopting a mindset that considers 60-minutes as the allocated duration which therefore must be fully utilised.
Perhaps we should take a lead from legal firms where their fee earners are billed for every 6-minutes accrued? If our time was also our own money, then would this sharpen our focus?
That may be a step too far, but 30-minutes feels attainable: shorter meetings arranged with specific objectives, undertaken with better focus (primary purpose) and fewer people who are making valuable contributions.
So that’s our challenge for us all:
- 30-minute meetings
- Include only the people who really need to be there
- Everyone given equal opportunity to participate
- And only attend the meeting if it’s necessary.
We’ll wrap up this piece with the thoughts of none other than Elon Musk on the subject. Love him or loathe him, a number of points from his leaked and now widely circulated email to Tesla employees on the subject of meetings and productivity still strikes a chord:
No big meetings
“Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get [out] of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.”
Ditch frequent meetings
“Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.”
Leave a meeting if you’re not contributing
“Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”
Drop jargon
“Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorise a glossary just to function at Tesla.”
Communicate directly, irrespective of hierarchy
“Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘chain of command’… A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is to allow free flow of information between all levels. It must be OK for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.”
Follow logic, not rules
“In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.”
References:
Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist: https://marketoonist.com/
How CEOs Manage Time – Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria Harvard Business School: https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-ceos-manage-time.
How DBS Transformed Its Culture to Become “The World’s Best Bank”, Innosight: https://www.innosight.com/client_impact_story/dbs-bank/
Elon Musk’s 6 productivity rules, including walk out of meetings that waste your time, CBNC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/elon-musks-productivity-rules-according-to-tesla-email.html
Photo credit: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels.com
