The Problem With Meetings And How To Fix It

Stop wasting people’s time

If you’re anything like me, you absolutely dread meetings. They always seem to be a colossal waste of time, and they never accomplish anything.

The problem with meetings is that everyone has a different idea about what they should be. Most people see them as a way to get everyone on the same page — you know, so you’re all working toward the same goals. The thing is, it turns out most companies don’t even have clear goals, which means every meeting is just a bunch of people sitting around trying to figure out what they should be doing. I mean, what do you do when your boss says “be more customer-focused”? What does that even mean? And how do you know if you’ve done it or not?

Worst of all, meetings are just boring. I mean, they have to be, right? You’re sitting in a room listening to someone tell you what to do and why it’s important. If that doesn’t sound like absolute torture to you, then I’m not sure we can hang out anymore because I just don’t relate to your lifestyle choices at all.

And yet we keep having them!

It’s well-known that meetings are the worst.

They’re boring. They take forever. They keep people from doing their actual jobs. In fact, recent research shows that nearly 70% of all meetings are unproductive and should not happen at all. And yet somehow, despite all this evidence against them, meetings still exist and continue to dominate our workdays — like a stubborn old phone that refuses to die and hangs around far too long after its expiration date.

Meetings held without a purpose

Make sure you know why you’re having a meeting. If you don’t know what the point of your meeting is, then how can you possibly expect other people to help? People will only have meaningful contributions if they know what’s supposed to happen in the meeting.

This is by far the worst kind of meeting because it’s essentially an unproductive meeting held on purpose (which almost feels like a kind of meta-sin). It’s like a sin within a sin within a sin. A triple threat of laziness, inefficiency, and stupidity (all the way down!).

But let’s take a step back for a second: why do we even have meetings in the first place? There are two main reasons for meetings: to make decisions or to share information. That’s it!

Meetings are great for getting people on the same page, brainstorming ideas, and making a decision. But so many meetings these days are just… painful. If you’re in a meeting, odds are you’re thinking about the work that’s piling up while you sit there. You’re looking at your phone and checking when the next meeting is going to start.

It’s not that meetings don’t have their place — they do! They help us get on the same page with our coworkers and they can be a great way to make sure everyone knows what’s happening with a project. But we need to stop wasting people’s time with them! Meetings can run long, they can drag on, and they can go off-topic really easily.

So how do we fix it? The answer is clear:

Only have a meeting when absolutely necessary. Not everything has to be a meeting, people.

It’s time to stop wasting time in meetings.

Think about it: How many meetings have you attended that could have been handled in just an email? Or a Slack message? Or a phone call? I bet the answer is “A LOT.”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: as long as you’ve done your homework on your topic, you don’t need meetings. You just don’t. People are busy, and meetings — particularly the ones that aren’t super-structured and don’t have a clear agenda — are a total waste of everyone’s time.

If you want to get things done, start by figuring out whether or not the thing you’re planning needs to be discussed in person. If it does, then GREAT! Have that meeting! But if it doesn’t, then maybe just stick to emailing or texting for this one (or whatever works for your team).

A meeting must have a clear purpose:

We need to be clear about the purpose of our meetings before we invite anyone else to them. What exactly are we trying to accomplish? Is this something that requires group input? Do we just need to be sure everyone is aware of what’s going on? Are we trying to generate new ideas or identify problems? Once we’ve identified the purpose of our meeting, it will be much easier to ensure it stays on topic, doesn’t drag on too

Meetings can be necessary to coordinate work and make decisions, but when people just show up, sit down, and present information in a monotone voice, you’re not really accomplishing much.

There are ways to fix this. You can try adding parameters to your meeting: what will you achieve? What do you need to know in order to proceed? Who needs to be there?

If there is no agenda, there is no purpose.

Meetings without agendas are like meandering road trips without destinations — you end up somewhere but with no feeling of having achieved anything tangible. Meetings should always have an actionable agenda so that there’s a goal in sight — it keeps everyone on-task and focused while maintaining productivity.

There are two key pieces to a healthy meeting: an agenda and a purpose. You set the purpose of your meeting, then you construct an agenda that supports that purpose. The agenda is the list of things you want to discuss and decide at your meeting. It’s critical that you spend time creating your agenda before sending out invitations to the meeting; otherwise, you risk wasting people’s time or not getting through all of your items.

Make sure you include the agenda on the invitation so attendees know what they can expect at the meeting — it builds trust and ensures accountability. When people arrive prepared, they’re more engaged, able to contribute more effectively, and leave feeling like their time was well spent.

Once everyone is present, review the agenda and make sure everyone understands it before starting into your first item. That is how you ensure everyone knows what to expect from this gathering as well as how much time will be required from them to participate in it properly (and it helps keep people focused). If new topics come up during the course of the conversation — or one topic takes a lot longer than expected — you can do one of three things: 1) pause conversation on that topic until later in the day after addressing higher-priority issues; 2) jot down a note about it for later; or 3) if appropriate, make room for that topic within the current time frame by removing another item from consideration altogether or by shortening discussion on another item already listed on your agenda (provided someone has not already had significant prep work completed or there is strong objection).

Sticking to an agreed-upon plan may feel rigid at first if you’re used to having free-flowing conversations (or no conversations) in meetings, but our experience suggests that if there’s a good reason for everything being discussed — and no one feels uncomfortable contributing her thoughts — people tend to engage more deeply and encourage each other throughout this type of process.

Use your timer aggressively

You could try setting a timer and, when it goes off, bring the meeting to a close — even if you’re not done talking about everything. This will force participants to focus on the most important things first.

People must come prepared. Don’t have a meeting if nobody is coming to the meeting with original ideas.

There are few things that can derail a meeting more than a lack of preparedness. Nothing says “this meeting is a waste of my time” like when people come unprepared to the meeting, and nobody has any ideas or plans to make things happen.

You’ve probably been in those meetings where nobody really knows what’s going on, and it feels like nobody really wants to be there. It’s not that they don’t actually want to be there — it’s that they have nothing meaningful to contribute during the meeting because they didn’t come prepared with any ideas or plans.

It’s also important that people come prepared and have given their input before arriving at the meeting; this way, everyone knows what other people think and who is going along with which ideas. If your meeting is to discuss a specific problem or idea, everyone should come having thought carefully about the topic beforehand — not just listened closely during the meeting itself.

If you’ve ever been in a brainstorming session that went nowhere, you know how frustrating it can be when people don’t have anything new to contribute. Often it’s the result of poor preparation, but it can also be a reflection of the leadership’s inability to inspire creativity.

If your team needs to get some good ideas for their next project, here are a few ways to make sure they’re in the right mindset.

• Don’t have a meeting if nobody is coming to the meeting with original ideas.
• Don’t have a meeting if nobody has read up on the subject that will be discussed.
• Don’t have a meeting if nobody has time to think about what they’re going to say.
• Don’t have a meeting if nobody is going to listen to what other people are saying.

You can fix meetings by cutting down on small talk.

There’s no reason to spend the first twenty minutes of a meeting chatting about weekend plans or the latest episode of The Bachelor.

Instead, open with a quick round of introductions, and then move on to the agenda for the day. Set an agenda. Let everyone know why they’re in attendance, what you want them to accomplish, and how long you expect the meeting to last.

This helps people get focused and realize when it’s time to wrap things up. Keep meetings short. If meetings don’t have a strict end time, they can easily drag on for hours as people talk about random side topics or argue over semantics that no one will remember once they leave the room anyway.

Use a timer at all your meetings; that way everyone can stay focused knowing that there is an endpoint coming soon (and if you really need more time than allotted, you can always schedule another meeting). Don’t let anyone waste everyone else’s time with off-topic questions or requests for help during these meetings unless it is urgent and necessary (in which case — schedule another meeting.)

Ideally, all these steps will help make meetings more efficient for everyone involved!

Whether you’re the person running the meeting or just an attendee, it’s important to remember that meetings should be focused heavily on results.

Meetings can be better

You can fix meetings.

And you don’t need a drastic overhaul to make them better.

One small step can be enough.

Just start with the next one. Take a problem away from it and run an experiment to see if it makes things better. Not perfect, just better.

If it does, keep going!

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