In Brief
The Challenge
Meetings are supposed to improve creativity and productivity—but they do the opposite when they’re excessive, badly scheduled, poorly run, or all three. These problems take a toll on the whole organization, and they require systemic fixes.
The Solution
Groups must first figure out what kind of time their meetings tend to waste—group, individual, or both. They can then follow a five-step process for change: (1) collect impressions from each member; (2) interpret those together; (3) choose a group goal for improving meetings that feels personally relevant and motivating; (4) measure progress; and (5) regularly check in to make sure people don’t revert to old patterns.
Poking fun at meetings is the stuff of Dilbert cartoons—we can all joke about how soul-sucking and painful they are. But that pain has real consequences for teams and organizations. In our interviews with hundreds of executives, in fields ranging from high tech and retail to pharmaceuticals and consulting, many said they felt overwhelmed by their meetings—whether formal or informal, traditional or agile, face-to-face or electronically mediated. One said, “I cannot get my head above water to breathe during the week.” Another described stabbing her leg with a pencil to stop from screaming during a particularly torturous staff meeting. Such complaints are supported by research showing that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. And that doesn’t even include all the impromptu gatherings that don’t make it onto the schedule.
