Identifying the Key Contributor to Poorly Conducted Meetings

Meetings can drive alignment within the organization; give direction; generate energy, focus, and creativity; and inspire your team to reach the next level.

Meetings serve as a platform for giving voice to those who often go unheard. They also foster team bonding and provide an efficient way to tackle complex issues that cannot be resolved through mere email correspondence. Personal interaction, whether in-person or over video, adds a new dimension to team relationships. You can gauge emotions through tone and inflection, interpret body language, and make visual observations, all of which aid in forging stronger collaboration.

Poorly run meetings can have the opposite effect. The team dreads going, finds them boring or doesn't pay attention. They are often distracted by their phones, checking messages or are lost in their mental to do list that is a mile long. Or they sit there confused about the purpose or what value they're providing or getting by attending.

Moreover, poorly conducted meetings lead to financial losses. For example, if an employee earning $75,000 annually, or approximately $36 per hour, attends a 1-hour ineffective meeting each day, that amounts to $8,964 in wasted time (based on 249 working days). When multiplied by the number of employees in a company, it quickly adds up to one of the most significant financial drains, deserving attention and resolution.

Repeatedly, I've observed how efficiently managed meetings enhance and support the accomplishment of leaders' objectives.

It's not that meetings are bad; it's that we are bad a running them.

We aren't training or equipping our people with the right skills and tools to run effective meetings. Too often, leaders and attendees complain that they hate meetings, while failing to learn how to run and participate in them.

It's like sending your child into a chess tournament without showing them how each piece moves, strategies, or even the rules of the game. Putting them in this situation leads to countless mistakes and a disdain for the experience. That's similar to what we do with our employees when we send them to meetings without proper training.

The onus falls on leaders to teach the employees how to run and participate in a meeting. Otherwise, its like a parent blaming the game of chess for why their child hates board games. It's not the game of chess that's to blame; it's the parent. And the same idea applies to business meetings.

In conclusion, meetings serve as a crucial tool for communication and problem-solving in organizations. When run effectively, they drive alignment, provide direction, and foster team bonding. Poorly conducted meetings, on the other hand, can be a major source of frustration, and waste of time and money. The solution to this issue lies with leaders who must equip their employees with the necessary skills and tools to run productive meetings. It's time to shift the focus from complaining about ineffective meetings to taking responsibility for improving them.