Nearly 20 million meetings occur in the U.S. each business day, and research indicates that over half of this meeting time is wasted.
If this data is even close to accurate, consider the negative impact on our organizations!
Yet a quick review of the most common complaints about meetings indicates that the remedies are not that complex! In addition, consider what’s at stake, and how we can benefit from well-run and consistently-run team meetings:
- Assessment: Team meetings are key opportunities to assess the team all at once, measure the group’s attitude and then set strategies accordingly.
- Drive productivity: Based on assessment, identify the best ways to leverage or direct the team’s collective effort, and help people to work on the right things.
- Engagement: We can’t build team spirit if we don’t regularly “assemble” the team, and leadership is difficult if a leader doesn’t regularly engage with the team.
- Team motivation: Many people will go the extra mile for the team; but we can’t leverage team motivation if we only interact with people on an individual basis.
- Thought leadership: Driving a high-performance culture begins with helping people focus on the right things, and publicly identifying / reaffirming core values and brand messaging.
- Education: As stated in this newsletter, every meeting should have an educational component that is based on the relevant issues of the day; and let’s not forget there’s wisdom in the room. Sharing value-added information and best practices in a public forum not only provides highly-credible education, but also enables successful team members to shine in front of their peers.