ARE MEETINGS A WASTE?
As a manager, your goal is to facilitate the free exchange of ideas, applications and solutions to project management challenges. The most frequent approach for accomplishing this is the business meeting. But think about the last four meetings you attended. Now ask yourself, “Was my time spent efficiently ?,” and “Did we accomplish our goals?” For too many managers, the answer to these questions is a resounding “NO!”
Meetings are the most fundamental project management practice. Every plan, decision, problem resolution, initiative, budget, and strategy is developed and communicated in a meeting. Monitoring of project status and work performance is done through meetings. Work teams update each other on the status of their part of the project.
A great deal of people, time, and money is allocated to meetings-over twenty million are held every business day in the U.S. Managers spend anywhere from 40-60 percent of their time in meetings.
We allocate these precious resources because of meetings’ vast potential. Through synergy, groups of people have the ability to produce more results in less time and with less effort than any individual could working alone. Synergy not only leads to greater quantity of output, but also to a higher quality of output.
Despite their potential, meetings can be a poor investment. Most managers estimate that 40 percent of their time in meetings is wasted; therefore, the company is only realizing a 60 percent return on investment. That would be like putting $10,000 in a certificate of deposit, and have it mature at $6,000.
Obviously the company shouldn't be satisfied, especially when the effects of synergy should produce at least a 120 percent return on meeting investment. But meetings aren't imaginary bank accounts; they're a very real investment. Table 1 demonstrates several levels of direct labor cost for routine meetings over one year. For example, if eight mid-level managers meet weekly for four hours, in one year the labor expense totals $52,000. If the company had ten such groups meeting regularly, the cost would be over one-half million dollars.
Then there's the “lost opportunity” cost—people in meetings are not at their jobs doing other work. If 40 percent of their meeting time is wasted, the work they could have accomplished in that time goes undone or gets completed by someone else.
Finally, there is an emotional cost to meeting involvement, as attendees put time and effort into preparing, presenting and participating. If the meeting doesn't accomplish its objective, what message does that send to the person who made an effort to contribute?
| Table 1. Direct Labor Cost for Routine Meetings Over One Year | |||
| Cost of Meeting Time | |||
| Average Annual | Six People | Eight People | Ten People |
| Salary & Benefits | Meeting Once per | Meeting Once per | Meeting Once per |
| of Each | Week for Four | Week for Four | Week for Four |
| Participant | Hours | Hours | Hours |
| $30,000 | $23,400 | $31,200 | $39,000 |
| $50,000 | $39,000 | $52,000 | $65,000 |
| $70,000 | $54,600 | $72,800 | $91,000 |
Ineffective meetings are a tremendous drain on resources. Many companies write this off as a cost of doing business, but can they really justify an expense of one-half million dollars per year without evaluating a return on that investment?
If your approach to meetings is well-thought-out, organized, and constantly evaluated, you will be able to turn them into an investment, and not a loss, for your project.
MEETING SUCCESS FACTORS
Using proven concepts from Total Quality Management (TQM), industrial engineering, organizational development, and academic research on meeting behaviors, it has been determined that there are two key success factors in today's highly-competitive and information-intensive business environment. The first factor is the ability of an organization to communicate effectively and efficiently.
Second is the ease with which individuals and groups can collaborate, cooperate and coordinate activities. If a company can effectively communicate and coordinate group activities, then that company will be able to leverage its resources more effectively, be more responsive to changes, and ultimately be more successful.
Success lies not in eliminating or avoiding meetings, but in improving their efficiency and effectiveness. The action steps which can be taken to improve meeting effectiveness include studying meeting behaviors, using proven concepts to improve meetings, rating meetings, and evaluating those responses.
Figure 1. Sample Feedback Report
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MEETINGS
To learn about meetings, actively study the available literature regarding the elements of meeting effectiveness. Here you'll learn how to implement such key meeting improvement strategies as:
- Have a few clearly defined desired outcomes.
- Provide a written agenda with timeframes for each item.
- Make sure the participants are prepared to address the agenda items.
- Make sure meeting roles are clearly understood.
- Keep discussion focused on the tasks at hand.
- Encourage group members to listen well to each other and ask for clarification when needed.
- At the end of the meeting, summarize what has been decided and what actions need to be taken, who is responsible, and appropriate deadlines.
There are many studies which provide meeting effectiveness improvement strategies. One strategy is to use visuals such as overhead transparencies, flip charts, marking boards, or handouts. According to the Wharton Applied Research Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, presentations using overhead transparencies have a positive effect on meeting aspects such as:
- Presenters were perceived as significantly better prepared, more professional, more persuasive, more highly credible and more interesting.
- Group decisions were reached faster.
- Less time was spent on lengthy monologues.
- Meetings were shorter.
EVALUATE MEETINGS
An integral element in any improvement strategy is evaluation. This ensures that new procedures are being implemented, and meets the TQM principles of a commitment to “monitor and display” organizational performance in all areas. To meet TQM goals, develop a tool for objectively monitoring and demonstrating the continuous improvement of that most fundamental work activity, the business meeting.
One of the best ways to evaluate your meetings is to ask two very simple questions at the end:
- What did we do well in this meeting?
- What can we improve next time?
An in-depth analysis would have the group rate the eight fundamental meeting practices. The first four principles— meeting discipline, results achieved, meeting cost, and participant satisfaction— are indigenous to all meetings.
The remaining four principles are the basic meeting processes: communication, idea-generation, decision-making, and action-taking. While meetings serve many purposes, they consist of some combination of these processes. For each meeting, determine the contribution of each process to achieving the meeting's goals, and reflect this in the scoring process.
Scoring, or rating a meeting, must be a group process. This builds team spirit as it provides immediate, positive reinforcement for the successes of the group and enables the group to focus its improvement efforts on one or two priorities, rather than trying a “shotgun” approach. Everyone, not just the meeting leader, has a stake in improving the quality and effectiveness of the meeting.
In subsequent meetings, continue scoring, and compare these results to your original baseline, to illustrate progress and areas in need of attention.
Remember that “what gets measured gets done.” By defining critical meeting practices, providing a vehicle for meeting groups to learn these practices and evaluate their performance, supplying a mechanism and guidelines for ongoing feedback and improvement, and providing reinforcement for positive meeting practices, project managers can actively work to increase meeting effectiveness.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line is that meetings can, and should be, a most powerful business tool. By creating an entirely new pattern for meeting management, you can expect to save time, save money, and improve productivity. This structure will support your efforts to complete projects on time and under budget.
When you consider all the costs of business meetings, anything an organization can do to improve their effectiveness is an investment which will yield an enormous return.
George Huyler has an extensive background in industrial engineering and management applications. He is a partner in Huyler Productivity Associates, Inc‥
Kevin Crosby holds a Ph.D. in instructional design, with 20 years experience in the field of training and development. He is a senior research scientist at the University of Buffalo and a partner in Huyler Productivity Associates, Inc.