Myths That Ruin Meetings. This is an inescapable and vital element of doing business, according to the majority of people. Organizations spend around 15% of their time in meetings, according to a pre-COVID 2019 survey by Bain & Company. Meetings account for 35% of the time spent by the average mid-level manager.
The amount of time each of us spent in meetings increased dramatically once COVID transported us home and we were no longer able to have casual conversations in the hallway or over lunch.
This is where it becomes very annoying: most people perceive meetings to be ineffective. A staggering 37% of meetings are thought to be of little or no benefit to the organization.
The perniciousness of three prevalent meeting myths You’ve probably heard about these beliefs and believe they’re true or ridiculous, but you don’t have the authority to do anything about it.
Our goal is to dispel these fallacies once and for all so that you can keep meetings focused, respectful, on track, and productive.
Myth #1) Structure spoils spontaneity.
I once went to a two-day disaster, er…meeting that cost the organizers easily over $40,000. Thirty participants agreed on and then pinned down the issues they wanted to work on for the first half of the day. They then spent the next 14 hours falling down rabbit holes with each other, debating over unsolvable issues and making very few decisions. “I didn’t want to spoil the spontaneity by imposing a framework,” the manager who arranged the meeting said when I inquired where the agenda was.
Reality: We would build buildings without blueprints if spontaneity were a universally sound business practice. Of course, no successful business person operates without a strategy.
The Solution: Establish a broad purpose and a specific goal, and then plan an agenda ahead of time that will guide you toward them while you’re in the meeting. This agenda should ideally be so clear, thorough, and specific that anyone may utilize it to help the meeting achieve its goal and serve its purpose. ( Myths That Ruin Meetings)
Myth #2: Since it’s my meeting I should do all the talking.
Some meetings are conducted in the manner of a medieval court. The chairperson occupies a rhetorical throne, while the subjects remain silent. The loud talker explains this by saying, “I’m the boss here, and if the other individuals in the room understood half as much as I do, they’d be in charge.”
Reality: You’re working too hard if you’re the only one talking. Furthermore, you should be aware that most people protect themselves against long monologues by putting their brain on vacation. The point is that if you’re doing all or most of the talking, no one is paying attention to you: they’re too busy daydreaming, doodling, or dreaming to pay attention to you.
The Fix: via a memo, slideshow, or email with attachments, provide key information, background, and data in advance as a “read-ahead.” Then develop an agenda that assesses comprehension, capitalizes on that information, and keeps the group focused on participant-driven and group-oriented activities and discussion – all while staying on track to achieve the meeting’s goal and achieve the purpose. (Myths That Ruin Meetings)
Myth #3: Meetings are free.
Most meetings are paid for using soft money, unless they’re major, pricey offsite affairs. That is, funds that have already been allocated to salaries. Furthermore, no purchase request is required. There is no need to approve a budget. All it takes is for someone to call a meeting, and Bob is your uncle.
Meetings are too expensive. They eat up people’s time, and we all know that time equals money. Employees waste the most critical resource in a corporation – the time people should be spending on the activities, systems, and procedures that make the organization effective – when they hold unproductive, undisciplined, and gabfest types of meetings.
The Solution: Create meetings that support your organization’s mission, vision, and strategy. If your company’s main goal is to make money, make sure the meeting focuses on how we’ll do it through the efforts, roles, and agreements of the people in the room. After all, a meeting isn’t a company picnic; it’s a business activity.
The Center for Respectful Leadership’s Executive Director, Gregg Ward, is on a mission to enable leadership and organizational transformation through respect.
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