Why I Think Meetings are a F#$#in Waste of Time
In the process of launching Lifescapeartists, there were absolutely no meetings held. That probably sounds really funny, but it’s completely true and inspired me to write this piece and explain to you why I think meetings are a complete fu#$%$in waste of time.
I personally have always joked with people that if I was CEO of a company that I would put a one hour time limit on all meetings. For the most part, I think meetings are unproductive, uninformative, repetitive and do very little in terms of generating results. In fact the most that comes out of many meetings is the date for the next meeting. People spend an hour discussing something that could have been summarized in an email that would take 15 minutes to read.
One of the most interesting things I learned from having no meetings during the launch of this site was that concise communication produces great results. Communication between me and Gilbert, the other founder of this site was limited to a few chat sessions and very concise emails with exactly what we wanted one another to do. 2 months later we had successfully launched this site.
How to Achieve this level of Efficiency:
- Identify the greatest strengths of each team member
- Delegate and divide tasks according to each person’s greatest strengths
- Set Deadlines
- Don’t go apeshit if you don’t meet the deadlines
- Use email, but GET TO THE POINT FAST (e.g. use a bullet list if you want to assign tasks)
- DON’T HAVE MEETINGS
I know that the corporate world or even the average person for that matter is unlikely to suddenly take my suggestions about not having meetings too seriously anytime soon, so for their sake I will share some advice on improving the process of having a meeting.
How to get the most out of a meeting
Time Limits: Make a rule that you have a stringent time limit on meetings and stick to that rule. I recommend one hour maximum. Most people are zoned out after the first hour from what I’ve seen. When I was in business school one of the best groups I was in had a rule of 2 hour maximum meeting. That way no time was wasted and we finished everything we needed to do.
Designate a Leader: As somebody who talks alot, I will say that the biggest problem with meetings is that people talk too much and don’t say enough. With a moderator who controls the tempo, the agenda and everything else things will go much faster.
Plan: One thing that bugs the crap out of me in the corporate world is weekly meetings that occur solely for the sake of having a weekly meeting. Don’t meet weekly if you don’t need to. If you do have a meeting, have an agenda and work through it quickly.
Use a weekly newsletter: If everybody on your team has something to say, let them express it in a weekly internal newsletter. The other option is to setup a blog for the team and write a once week post summarizing everything and the commenting on it. Somehow I have a feeling more would come from this then sitting in a meeting getting annoyed that the meeting is lasting so long. In case you haven’t figured it out, I don’t enjoy long meetings.
I think if you approach the new year with a “less meetings, more results” mentality and put some of my tips here to use, you’ll find that life in general will be much more productive.
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About Srinivas: Srinivas Rao is a personal development blogger and avid surfer who writes at his two blogs The Skool of Life and Stoked for life. Follow him on twitter here. |
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So True! I was in 3 major Corporations and now own my own company. Those companies would spend mongo-bucks flying us to fabulous places to have meetings. And after all the posturing and grandstanding, very little would be accomplished. But I got to play golf and have some wonderful meals. The best meetings in MY company are held spontaneously in the hall, where pearls are routinely dropped and acted on. Communication is a dynamic process that happens all the time, and via all the mediums…..and only through the single dimension of a meeting.
I couldn’t have said it better Srini! The brevity, precision and non-BS way we managed to put up this blog has been truly astounding and a prime example of what you just perfectly explained.
It’s funny how we have been harboring the same opinion about meetings – just a week ago after being pissed off from an unproductive 3 hour meeting – I started preaching out how I would set a one hour limit on meetings!!!! (Srini & I never talked about this before).
@ Mark – you also hit the nail – spontaneous hall meetings can be so more productive at times!! true!!
@Gilbert: I think it is awesome that the execution of this was done with so little communication. We have a few minor fixes here and there, but it’s so much faster to communicate our way.
@Mark: Glad to see somebody else shares my philosophy on having meetings.
There’s nothing worse that being in a meeting that isn’t integral to what you’re doing, and knowing (while you’re sitting there thumbing your pen and doodling on a legal pad) that you could actually be getting things done if you were stuck in a meeting.
I couldn’t agree more
I’m gonna have to take an opposing view on this one. While I’ve participated in some meetings that are a complete waste of time, I’ve participated in many more that were invaluable to the task, project, or organization. The last place I worked had a very geographically diverse team, and the only way to keep on top of what was going on in the firm, and on the team, was to have weekly meetings (actually conference calls.) These meetings kept everyone in the loop, but more importantly, it kept the team dynamics together. It’s very easy to feel isolated when you don’t work in the same office as the rest of your team.
I also participate in a monthly meeting in one of my social clubs. I serve on the board of directors, and it would be infinitely more difficult to plan all the activities and events without meeting in person.
As you said, have a plan. I think this is one of the most important aspects of holding a successful meeting. Setting an agenda and sending it to each participate before the meeting, makes the meeting flow much better, and makes it easier to maintain order.