I’ve got no time. I’m too busy. I’m booked all day. If you’re like me and have worked in an office, statements like this have become all too normal. Why? Because of meetings. Specifically, I think it’s recurring meetings that are at the root of the problem.
Recurring meetings, meaning those meetings that happen on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly cadence and are usually scheduled weeks and months in advance. The intent behind these meetings is usually great. People want to have a regular time in their calendar to have check ins and regroups and by doing so they are hoping to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.
The problem here is what happens after the first meeting. In my experience, the quality and efficiency of these meetings drops and eventually plateaus at a level where the meeting itself is no longer valuable and most people are unhappy with it, all the way from the organizer the attendee(s).
Ultimately what happens is that people get together for 30 or 60 minutes, which is really an arbitrary length that was decided based on how calendars work, not the actual amount of time that is needed to have a successful meeting, but that’s beside the point. And when they get together, what happens? People have nothing critical to discuss so they find things to talk about. Boring updates that don’t ultimately matter or items are discussed that should have been talked about at the moment the arose are often central themes of these meetings.
My thoughts? End recurring meetings. If you really need to meet, then great, book a meeting. What I think you’ll quickly realize by removing them is that you have a lot more time back in your day to do real work and your team will make more decisions in real time that can have a more immediate impact.