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Can they tell I keep glancing at the clock? Is it obvious that I’m looking at other windows on my computer? Is my facial expression giving away how bored and irritated I feel?
If you have participated in a bad meeting, these thoughts will be familiar. Several years back, this was me at a slow and unproductive team meeting. 80% of our time was spent on status updates when most of the updates were not important for the whole team to know. We touched several other topics, but the discussions did not lead to a single action item—plus, I knew we’d talk about them all again next week. My brain started wandering to what I considered more important matters, like a pending deal I had with a potential customer. I quietly started checking my email on my phone, looking for an update.
“What do you think, Patrick?” my team member suddenly asked me.
Oh, crap! “Uh…sorry,” I said, turning my phone upside down and coming back to the present moment. I felt embarrassed; after all, I was the team and company leader. But I also felt frustrated. Why was this meeting so wasteful of my time and my employees’ time?
The Hidden Cost of Meetings That Suck
Meetings are expensive—especially with members of senior leadership. If you have ten execs in a room for just two hours, and each person’s time costs $200/hour, you are spending $4,000 on that meeting. Can you remember the last time you had a meeting that you truly felt was worth $4,000? If you’re having one bad team meeting a week for 50 weeks, you are wasting $200,000 a year! You may as well have bought a Porsche 911 Turbo and dumped it in a lake!
Bad meetings are not just costing you money—they are costing you opportunities. Consider how your leadership team could have otherwise spent those two hours. How many employees could they have positively impacted? How many customers could they have touched? How many problems could they have solved?
You may be wondering if your meetings are really that bad. Here are some telltale signs:
- You see the event pop up on your calendar and immediately think, “Argh, it’s time for the meeting again.”
- You can hardly ever remember what was discussed the week before.
- You feel that most of the content has nothing to do with you.
- You feel the meeting takes place because the boss/facilitator organizes it. It’s their meeting, not yours.
- You feel more behind on work when you leave the meeting.
- You feel helpless to change anything.
How to De-Suck Your Meetings
You don’t need meetings that are:
- Boring.
- Status-focused.
- Packed with content that isn’t relevant to most of the people there.
What you need are meetings that rock. It is possible, but you have to commit to three principles:
1. Every conversation is action-oriented. Whenever an important topic is discussed (and if it’s not important or relevant to the group, why are you discussing it?), decide on and record action items. Assign owners and due dates. In the Rhythm software, you can do this in just a few seconds using the Task feature. This is the only way you will move stuck projects forward and create momentum.
2. Spend 80% of your time in the hot zone. Create a dashboard for your priorities and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and status them using Red-Yellow-Green Success Criteria. Focus first and foremost on “hot” areas: any goals which are statused Red or Yellow. These are your problem areas and they merit the most attention. Use your team’s collective brainpower to talk through blockers, create solutions, and identify opportunities. Don’t worry about anything statused Green. A Green status means “business as usual”, and it rarely requires discussion.
3. Be candid and make exciting contributions. Put down the phone, close the email you’re drafting, and be fully present. Lean into spicy conversations to work through issues (otherwise, they will be pushed aside and worsen over time). Share your ideas even when you are not completely confident. Who knows? Whatever you contribute may be a great idea, or it may trigger the next great idea.
Progress Made Instead of Time Wasted
It is not a rule of business that meetings have to suck. As a leader, it is your job to make the most of the precious time you have with your team. Get rid of everything you don’t need. Maintain and add what you do need. You will be surprised at how productive your meetings can be! Instead of leaving the meeting feeling like you’ve wasted time on status updates, you will feel like you actually made progress in your work.
You don’t need meetings. Well, okay…you do! But you don’t need bad ones. Commit to holding meetings that rock.