How Much Do Meetings Cost You?
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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Date
Today I wanted to share this infographic on the cost of unproductive meetings. I work virtually a lot of the time, but that doesn't generate half as many meetings as when I am physically in the office with my colleagues. Perhaps it's because when they see me they are keen to chat, or perhaps they forget I'm around to invite when I'm working out of the office.
When I attend meetings, and I'm sure you'll say the same, they often start with general chat or get derailed (obviously not the ones I'm chairing...!). When you add up the fact we spend around 7 days a month in meetings that's a lot of time wasted if you don't get the best out of your meetings. Have a look at the figures and I'll join you again at the bottom.
This infographic was put together by http://facilitationfirst.com/
I was surprised that only 73% of people confess to multi-tasking during meetings but we should also acknowledge that it isn't always a bad thing. I've been in a few meetings recently where someone asked a question and the group didn't have the data. A team manager Skype'd her colleague, got the response and shared the information with us so we could continue to debate that point. That's multi-tasking, but it's productive and useful and probably saved us from having a follow up meeting.
I'd also question that 50% of meetings are unnecessary. They might have the wrong people in the room, and if an exec says a meeting is unnecessary then they might simply mean that they personally didn't have to be there, not that the meeting shouldn't have happened at all.
We do need to make sure that project meetings involve the right group of people: senior enough to take ownership for decisions and move things forward but not so senior that it's too much detail for them and wastes their time (or lets them meddle in tasks that we'd rather they stayed out of).
So, what do you think about this data? Share your thoughts on meetings good and bad in the comments below. And is the answer better meeting management or just scrapping meetings altogether?
Posted on: October 09, 2015 12:00 AM |
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Comments (17)
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Vincent Kwok
Associate Director, Project Management, Product Development| Vir Biotechnology
Il, United States
I do agree that many meetings are unproductive. I am not sure about the 50% though. My experiences are that people do not come ready to meetings. This is why it wastes so much time. When a person is suppose to provide some information but does not have it and then has to wait until the meeting is over to check, this further perpetuates the situation. But I don't think scrapping meetings altogether is necessary. Better meeting management would help and a conscious effort to stay on topic during the meetings will help save time. I agree with you that the right people need to be at the meeting. I tend to see that too many people are invited to meetings when the agenda requires only a few.
Most of the times people attend meetings with unclear ideas (or no ideas at all), just trying to get lighten their minds up without any contribution to the discussion. When it happens, meetings get stretched on the time and probably become a waste of time, so a new meeting should be arranged.
Abdullah Al Mamoon
Deputy Managing Director & COO| United Commercial Bank PLC
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Can't agree more than this! Thanks for sharing this!
Andreas Madjari
Senior Consultant| consigma Management Beratung GmbH
Vienna, Austria
Thank you for this valuable reflection on the tool of meetings, Elizabeth!
A tool is what I consider meetings to be. And as with every tool, it can be used well and wisely, adding value, or it can be misused and even cause more harm than good. Therefore I would not vote for scrapping meetings altogether.
Some important parameters of a meeting are goal, agenda, participants, preparation and facilitation. A well prepared meeting with the right people in the room (regardless wether it is virtual or personal), a clear goal and an agenda focussed to that goal is likely to support the overall outcome.
What I would question is the classical daily or weekly recurring meeting that has just become a habit. People meet because once it was a good idea to spend time together to "get up to date" on some topic. That can be department meetings, weekly team meetings or bi-weekly management updates. The first meetings are usually well prepared. Over time I observe a certain amount of deterioration in the discipline, preparation and usefulness.
So I would encourage to question the repetitive meetings toward necessity and quality. If they are adding value, keep them. If they waste your time, scrap them and be productive elsewhere.
fosco frongia
Senior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUG
Fino Mornasco, Como, Italy
it is very impressive that 50% of meeting can be considered improductives. i think it is due to the most part of people don't make their "homework". Correctly other aspect refers to the attidude to invite people which don't bring any value added to it. in these cases we are loosing time? yes if we consider only the goal of the meeting but, if we enlarge our point of view, we can receive percious "parallel" info: we can learn more about team member actitude, the emotional situation of a team member. who is really involved in the project and who not etc.Surely you should not hold meetings just to get this indirect information. In any case, since you can only reduce but not eliminate unproductive meetings, we should learn at least to recover this valuable information
Vitaly Glotov
Strategic Alignment Telecom Expert and Certified PMP| Advanced Industries Packaging
Frankfurt Am Main, Hessen, Germany
Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you for sharing. I’ll be add to this awesome article some open descriptions available in the net regarding how attention needed to understand incoming information reduces with the time. I always use some remarkable sense for this issue: if the meeting continues more than one hour then the meeting counts us unprepared.
Sincerely,
Vitaly Glotov
Thanks for all your comments!
Michael Adams
Solutions Architect| LANL
Los Alamos, Nm, United States
That is an interesting graphic. I think your analysis that maybe the wrong people are at the meeting is apt. I also think that failing to have an agenda is always a plan for meeting disaster.
I have to be two headed about this though. On the one hand, getting the team together to let off some steam and to socialize is important and meetings are a good venue for that. Maybe meetings should all start with a bit of goofery. This can't be optional, rather it is a part of team building. One suggestion I read in Jeff Tobe's book, "Project Management Professionals are Coloring Outside the Lines," is to designate someone as the "what if" person for each meeting. They present a ridiculous "what if" question at the beginning of every meeting and everyone has to answer. This lightens the tone, and gets everyone focused on what is happening in the room. Also people are throwing ridiculous ideas out, so anything said after that is by comparison not ridiculous. One example cited, "What is your hair grew in, rather than growing out?"
After that is done, the meeting could commence, guided by an agenda. As the meeting organizer, I typically keep the minutes, and I type them directly into a template for meeting minutes. After the meeting is over, I review and make corrections. I ensure that action items are clearly marked with who is responsible for completing the action and when. Then I save them as a PDF and email them to everyone who was at the meeting. The top of the minutes has everyone's email, and phone.
This would generally allow for everyone to be related and create a team feeling, but it also communicates who is responsible for what and by when.
Another time suck is email. People use email as a means of fulfilling on their missed ambition to be a novelist!
Man, pair down your emails. Use bullet points, short statements of what needs to be accomplished and by when. It should be easy to quickly review an email for pertinent information. I receive more than 60 emails every single day. I don't have time to read 60 personal novels each day, so I would say email may well rate higher than meetings for wasted time.
Finally, I wonder if Toastmasters could help with any of this? I have never been, but looked on the website and plan to attend a meeting this week, as it seems intriguing. Have any of you ever tried it? Does it help with keeping a meeting on track?
fosco frongia
Senior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUG
Fino Mornasco, Como, Italy
I totally agree MIchael's comment
many thanks
It is so important to ensure and take care of involve the correct people in meetings... it is incredible the quantity of time (and resources like time = money) that all of us would lose in wrong meetings... Some times because we invite people or we are invited for others.
Then, it is necessary to have clear objetives and themes to try.
Other problem is not to define time for each issue or interview... I had some meetings with a lot of time wasted for large speech or not clear objective.
Define issue, explain it clearly and take decision or take on going the solution and take dated the next meeting.
Best regards,
Michael Adams
Solutions Architect| LANL
Los Alamos, Nm, United States
A final thought on preparing and sticking to a meeting agenda:
I typically assign times to the meeting topics. Then if the conversation begins to meander, I can say, "we only have four more minutes on this topic, so I want to be sure we stay focused." This keeps the conversation on track and productive.
If something comes up that isn't accounted for on the agenda, I say, "we will need to discuss this topic, but there isn't time in this meeting, so I'll make a note of it and we can schedule a short meeting later this week for that, or address it via email."
Priya Patra
Delivery Director| Capgemini India Technology Services Ltd
Mumbai, India
It is okay to multitask in a meeting , I have done that multiple times to get the latest update on a task while discussing the same with the senior management or customer. Such multitasking which helps in getting a definite outcome from a meeting is a Go for me. But however the bottomline for me is , every meeting should have definite outcome, outcome could be in terms of actions with definite timelines.
If the meeting does not have a outcome for me it is a failure, and I feel as project managers we need to drive that outcome.
I have noticed people in meetings that are doing multitasking but really not putting attention I meeting outcomes. ''When someone ask that people opinion, suggestions or a vote that people ask a review or repeat comments, because they are not in attention .
Now we are asking not assist if you are not dedicated in the meeting (give quality time). Do you agree?
Mike Frenette
Manager, IT PMO| Halifax Water (retired)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Meeting objective, agenda, chair, everyone pays attention and contributes, clear outcomes, follow up.
Is there more?
;)
Outcomes are essential, Priya - I totally agree. If you don't have a clear objective for the meeting, then it hasn't been a good use of time. So Mike, yep, I think that pretty much sums it up!
And Aldo, I have seen that behaviour in meetings. It's a bit like being in a classroom and the teacher trying to catch you out for not paying attention. If it is important that everyone pays attention all the time, then your rule seems fine to me. If the discussion will be wide-ranging and include topics that are not relevant to everyone, then I don't have a problem with them switching off and doing something else for that portion of the meeting.
Michael Adams
Solutions Architect| LANL
Los Alamos, Nm, United States
Aldo, that can be a tricky stance. I think, like Elizabeth, there are topics which require attention, and others where team members should engage in side conversations. It can feel disruptive, however, it turns out a scientific study on building the best and highest performing teams conducted by a Harvard team show that people breaking out into "back channel" conversations during a meeting is productive and contributes to success. Check it out:
https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams
Elizabeth, thanks for sharing that terrific article.
I agree with every comment specially Mike Frenette's comment about the topics and I would also include another essential points to register the discussed subjects during the meeting and define responsibilities
Also, is crucial every participant arrives before the beginning of the meeting.
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