Why Have Meetings?

  Communications Management   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

If your meetings don’t contribute more value than they cost, they should be cancelled. So how do calculate how much your meetings cost, and what’s the key to making them more effective and efficient?

Why have meetings at all? I think this is an important question to ask. It does not matter if your project meetings are virtual or in-person. If they don’t contribute more value than they cost, they should be cancelled. Period. Anything else does not make investment sense.

How much does a meeting cost? Well, take the average burdened hourly rate of each person, and multiply it by the number of meeting attendees and the number of hours. A colleague told me that at his company this calculation is performed at the end of every meeting: This meeting just cost us $2,000! It adds up quickly.

Value must exceed cost. In order to do this, the number of meetings should decrease to the bare minimum. And the remaining meetings should be as effective and efficient as possible.

What makes a meeting effective? The purpose of a meeting should be alignment. Activities that drive alignment make meetings effective. What drives alignment?

       > Reviewing the big picture of the project.

       > Gathering inputs on major current activities.

       > Reviewing major …

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