Why Meetings Are A Waste Of Time

By David Saxe, BBA, CPA. CA, CBC

I  recently facilitated a quarterly strategic planning session with a client I had met several months earlier.  At the “what’s working” item of the agenda, the Leader was elated with how much the leadership team was accomplishing during their weekly meetings.   The reason she initially became a client was because her management team could not resolve the long standing issues facing the company and the team was not focused.  They had an attendance problem for their meetings because everyone felt that these periodic meetings were a waste of time.

Most of us hate attending meetings because they tend to be boring, a waste of time, they last too long and very little is accomplished.  One of the first tools I implement is the weekly Leadership Team meeting.  This is a weekly, 90 minute meeting which is always rated at its conclusion on a scale of 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest.  The meetings have several characteristics:

  1. They are always held on the same day of the week and at the same time of day
  2. They always starts on time and END on time
  3. They have the same agenda.

There are several benefits to holding meetings based on these characteristics.  The same day and time allows team members to block off that part of the week and eliminate most attendance conflicts.  It becomes a sacred time solely devoted to the weekly meeting.  The meetings open on time, with a quick review of Goals, Metrics, To Dos and Action Items.  There is no discussion on any item that is ON track.  Any item that is OFF track is added to the issues list without discussion until the “issues” segment of the meeting.  Accountability is automatically built into these meetings because everyone on the leadership team knows they have to reveal if they are off-track, on a weekly basis.  This develops the traction needed to accomplish their goals.

A fixed agenda ensures that everyone knows a full 60 minutes will be devoted to addressing and solving the challenges of the company.  However, the most important element of a successful meeting is to add all issues that arise, to the Issues list and to deal with the most important issues only during the 60 minute issue solving segment.  If discussion of an issue is allowed to happen when raised, it will inevitably reveal more issues and before long the entire meeting will be off track.  Allowing issues to be addressed only during the issue solving portion of the meeting ensures that the meeting stays on track and issues are dealt with in order of importance.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, this is the only way to stick to the agenda and to devote the appropriate time to solving the challenges facing the organization.  There is an art to identifying, discussing and resolving issues.  That will be addressed in another article.

David Saxe, BBA, CPA, CA, CBC

Business Performance Specialist

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Accredited Facilitator

Certified Ownership Thinking™ Facilitator

Base Camp Trained EOS implementer

David has over 40 years of hands on business experience and is the Chief Coaching Officer at Next Level Business Planning.  The firm provides leadership teams with the tools, training and skills to build high performance, productive and cohesive teams within their businesses organizations.  David has a passion for working with leadership teams to help them create a laser-focused vision and provide the tools, training and traction to achieve that vision.   He also helps to create a culture of engagement and accountability to maximize efficiency and profitability by training employees to think and act like owners.  David can be reached at david@nextlevelbusinessplanning.com.