Ask your employees if they think they have too meetings and you will get a resounding “YES!” Most will also tell you that many of their meetings are a waste of time. Don’t believe me? Ask your team. Just sitting through meaningless meetings drains your energy because your brain still has to pay attention, even if you’re clearing email or shopping online at the same time. This is the reason why too many meetings is a significant contributor to workplace burnout.
Digital calendars are a big part of the problem. These apps allow others to book you into meetings you didn’t know you needed to be in. Ever open up your Outlook, for instance, and discover that the two hours you thought you had for completing a report has now been taken by your boss or someone else who has access to your calendar? You’re not alone. An essential part of reducing stress is cutting the number of decisions you make every day. But how can you, when meetings consume half the time? One woman I recently connected with had 13 meetings that day with an average length of 30 minutes. What did she do during her “free” time? She cleared her email.
So, what can you do to reduce the number of meetings within your environment? Here are five proven strategies:
Number one, convert announcements and briefings into videos. Reynolds American needed to update its employees on some corporate restructuring. Instead of having managers hold meetings, it created a ten-minute video that was distributed companywide. They estimate that this one change saved 95,000 staff hours.
Number two, ask those reporting on projects, monthly projections and such, to submit them 2-3 days prior to the meeting. Assume that everyone has read them. Then at the meeting say, “We have five minutes to answer any questions about the reports and updates submitted.” Those who don’t take time to read them will learn quickly they need to do so.
Number three, ride herd on ex parte discussions. Too many times the entire meeting gets hijacked by a couple of people who start going back and forth on an issue that doesn’t involve everyone else. If this happens, step in and say, “I need to you finish that conversation after the meeting. We need to keep moving.” You may have to persist with this for a few meetings until everyone understands that you really mean it.
Number four, add timing to all agendas. 15 minutes for this, 10 minutes for that. Then ask someone to enforce the timing with a one- or two-minute warning as time assigned for the item winds down. By the way, consider the time you think you will need for each item. Then reduce it by 10%. Ninety-five percent of what really needs to be said in any discussion will happen in the first few minutes.
Number five, have dedicated no-meetings days. Stride Health has no-meeting Wednesdays. This gives everyone a chance to focus on projects, take a breath, and prepare for the next day’s . . . meetings. Test this with your organization. I bet it will be a winner.
The key to all this is enforcing these parameters. It may take some getting used to, but people respect a leader who is respectful of their time.