Why Most Meetings Are a Waste of TimeAnd How You Can Change That

The Problem: How many times have you stepped out of a meeting and thought to yourself, “Well, that was a waste of time; I could have been doing x, y, and z instead.”

You’re Not Alone: According to a study done by Microsoft,

American workers, on average, spend 5.6 hours per week in meetings. 71% of workers surveyed thought those meetings were “not productive.”

Source: The New York Times For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Approximately 11 million meetings occur in the United

States each day. Source: Attentiv For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Yet, 88% of total meetings held are staff, task force, and information

sharing meetings.

Source: Attentiv For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Another study found that 33.4% of meeting participants find their

meeting time to be unproductive.

Source: Attentiv For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

This should come as no surprise, as 63% of meetings have no planned agenda.

Source: Wolf Motivation For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Good news: YOur meetings don’t have

to be a waste of time.

Here are some solutions for effective meetings.

You rarely need to call a meeting if you’re just planning on sharing information or

issuing action instructions.

Instead use meetings to debate issues or to develop new approaches.

Source: Wall Street Journal For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Source: Wall Street Journal For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Invite only the employees that are vital to meetings.

Empirical research suggests that a smaller group (five to seven) is more effective

at decision-making.

Here’s a technique that facilitates quicker, more productive

meetings: stand up.

Source: American Psychological Association For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

Source: American Psychological Association For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

According to the American Psychological Association, you can

reduce the time of a meeting by 34%, without affecting the quality of

decisions reached just by removing chairs from the meeting.

Parkinson’s Law states that that work expands to fill the amount of

time allotted to do it.

This means that calendars that give 30-60 minute options when scheduling meetings

often force people to fill up the 60 minute time slot, regardless of whether or not there are

items to discuss.

Source: Wolf Motivation For more information on the Six Disciplines business management platform, please visit SixDisciplines.com

This leads to: • Daydreaming (91%) • Missing meetings (96%) • Missing parts of meetings (95%) • Doing other work (73%) • Or even dozing off (39%)

Remember: Meetings rarely need to last for more than one hour, and virtually never

past 90 minutes. Also, always have an agenda and only invite key employees.

About Six Disciplines

Six Disciplines is a business management platform that helps companies like yours go from good to great.

We helped one client increase sales 38% with no additional increase in headcount. And we helped a private equity firm increase KPIs 50% in two years. We also helped a professional services firm increase profits 300%.

To find out more, call us at 866-344-8517 or email our CEO, Gary Harpst, at GHarpst@SixDisciplines.Com