How many hours per year do you spend in meetings around conference tables that you really didn’t need to attend? Be honest. It’s probably quite a lot. Many companies have meetings for the sake of having meetings, sitting around conference tables talking about things en masse that really could have been sorted out via email or with just one or two people in attendance.
We found this interesting infographic, which helps you decide whether you really need that meeting, or not.
This is a decision tree, or a flow chart of sorts, which leads you to ‘yes let’s have a meeting’, or ‘no, let’s not bother’. For instance, if you’re thinking about buying new office furniture sets for your workspace, do you really need the entire management team in attendance? Probably not; one or two would suffice and the rest could be updated via email, asking for suggestions. This means the rest of the management team can get on with their work!
As the infographic says, ask yourself whether it is an important topic, is attendance going to be high, is there a clear agenda, do you have the time, and is there a strong facilitator on hand? If you can say ‘yes’, then okay, it’s meeting time. In addition, do you have the equipment and office furniture available for the meeting?
What do you think? Do you think the future holds far less meetings than in the past or do you think they will help with improving your business in the future? Drop us a line on our Facebook page and share your thoughts.