I’ve just read a recent study* which found over a third of scheduled meetings are unproductive, equating to over 2½ working weeks wasted every year.  Not only is this unproductive and costly, poorly run meetings can be demotivational and lead to disengagement.

I’m not surprised by these stats; I’ve been victim of them many a time in my former corporate life. And this is why I’ve taken the lessons learned and focused a major part of our SCALE Operating System (SOS) on Meetings. Why….?

• Focussed and consistent meetings are efficient and effective. Everyone is aware of what their 100% looks like. And your business can tell you when it’s not working before it’s too late.
• A structured approach ensures meetings become the routine and rhythm of your business.
• Ultimately this means you can free up more of your time to focus ON your business and your big Exit, rather than being stuck IN the business doing a job.

My top tips on running effective meetings: 

• Set meetings on the same day, at the same time and with the same agenda.
• Always start on time. A 9am start doesn’t mean you’re making a brew and chatting about last night’s Top Gear at 9am. It means you’re all settled and tackling the first agenda AT 9am.
• Never cancel or postpone (unless there’s a real emergency).
• Meetings don’t need to be marathons. A 15-minute Daily Huddle first thing will answer all you need to know, and focus your team by simply asking: What happened yesterday? What are we going to do today?
• Embed how you run meetings into your culture – collaboration and accountability are key.

So, don’t let your employees be one of the 828,000 who spend time on Tinder during meetings.

* https://www.modernmanager.co.uk/unproductive-meetings-cost-24000-year/