“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” John Kenneth Galbraith

Meetings. The bane of all organizational existence. I’m not just saying that; it’s scientifically proven. Researchers from UCLA and the University of Minnesota found that executives spend between 40 and 50 percent of their work time in meetings, and that as much as 50 percent is wasted time. Here’s another way to look at it: a University of Arizona study found there are more than 11 million formal meetings per day in the US (but Canada can hold its own, thanks). The cost of this to a Fortune 500 company is more than $75 million a year.

We can’t do away with meetings entirely; they do, or they can, serve a very important function in organizations. The key is to make them more efficient so no one has the time or opportunity to daydream. How exactly you do that is dependent on the particular project, but here are some techniques we’ve used with success with clients:

• Daily key issues meetings. We held these every morning at 9:00 for 30 minutes. All the leads called in and raised key issues that needed immediate attention. Everyone was able to hear the issues, which could receive direct attention. We could find answers, start a mitigation process, or take other action almost immediately. Everyone’s current, new tasks are assigned efficiently, and we act or decide on a plan of action now.

• Project manager status meetings. The PMs met in order to share their status, perspective, risks they were facing, approaching milestones, or accomplishments. This was key information that we could then roll up into the program steering committee, to ensure it was constantly updated.

• Purposeful meeting structure. At the outset, we decide how we want information conveyed and when we wanted meetings. For instance, at our last project, we structured our meetings around when the steering committee met. The project managers had team meetings on Monday and Tuesday; I met with the PMs on Wednesday morning to get their statuses. We prepared a program status report by that afternoon and sent it to the steering committee so they could review it before the meeting Thursday afternoon. The structure set the tone and pace.

While you can try not to schedule a million meetings, there is a certain amount that needs to take place. What you need to do then is figure out ways to make them more effective. Tools like SharePoint or instant messaging can help, but old-school tactics are key:

• Set an agenda.
• Stick to it! As much as 25 percent of meeting time is spent on irrelevant topics (link to stats above).
• If there is a special item, deal with it immediately if it’s critical. If not, have a separate meeting with only those who need to be there.
• If it is a 30 minute meeting, you’re out of there in 30 minutes. No exceptions – unless you’re out of there in 25 minutes. You must be respectful of people’s time.
• Make sure the right people are there.

Meetings can be useful; they can even be used to get things done! The difference between money-wasting daydream sessions and productive meetings is in setting and managing expectations, keeping an agenda, and having structure to guide you.