Meetings may cause distraction, lost productivity

Despite the fact that meetings are ubiquitous in the business world, much of the time spent in them ends up being wasted through distractions and lost productivity, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

Typically well intentioned, meetings are called out of necessity to discuss problems, set directions and goals, and to delegate work once decisions are made so that plans can be carried out.

One of the most significant problems with meetings is that they can be a distraction for everyone. Having one scheduled at 10 a.m., for instance, can mean that team members working through a complicated problem just before it starts can derail their train of thought for hours as a result. The boss will often require people to join the group who aren’t connected to the agenda, and they can cause the topic of discussion to wander while contributing little toward making progress. Meanwhile, an hour-long meeting with ten people has in effect kept them from performing 10 hours of actual work that is now considered lost productivity. According to Forbes, Americans spend about 31 hours per month in such unproductive meetings.

Fortunately, some strategies can be deployed to achieve more productive meetings while avoiding as many distractions as possible. Take advantage of the fact that most meetings will grow to fill their scheduled timeframe, and schedule them to be shorter. Invite the minimum amount of people necessary to hold the meeting and consider using Amazon’s ‘two pizza’ rule – include few enough people that they can all share two pizzas. Once the session has started, clearly state the objective, consider banning laptops and avoid reading verbatim from a PowerPoint presentation. If all else fails, a face-to-face walking meeting might accomplish more than meeting with an entire group.