Meetings are a microcosm of an organization’s culture.

Workforce Management’s John Hollon recently pointed to a new NFI research study on business meetings on Workforce.com. The study found that "57 percent of business leaders spend 21 percent to 60 percent of their time each week in internal meetings. Some 56 percent of the executives found half of their meetings to be productive." Unfortunately, by implication, that means that half their meetings were not productive, leading to a waste of 10 – 30% of these business leaders' work days.

We think Hollon is right: meetings can be a real drain on time and productivity. The NFI statistics match our experience as management consultants. As a reward for moving up the ladder, executives get to lead and attend more meetings.

A meeting is the most common form of collaboration. Two or more people get together to 'co-labor' - solve problems, make plans and decisions, and reconcile differences. In the global business environment, meetings are a 24-7 reality. And it takes skill to conduct a meeting that produces a positive result. As more and more meetings are held with document-sharing and video technology, the frustrations can multiply - especially when you shouldn’t really be having a meeting in the first place!

What’s a person to do? Some common sense rules apply to any kind of meeting: face-to-face, telephonic or virtual.

When to hold a meeting

First of all, don’t hold a meeting just because you always have. Information sharing meetings – e.g., most weekly staff meetings and project update meetings – can go into on-line report rooms, where people can check-in at will. Or simply use e-mail to send or information updates.

A meeting is usually the best way to go when you want the key stakeholders to understand, agree to, and then help implement an important course of action (and you haven’t been able to determine that individually). In that case, you’ll want to see or hear each person confirm her/his understanding and agreement.

Here are a few specific situations where a meeting may forward the action:

1) You believe the synergy of a group may generate a better idea or outcome.

2) You are launching a new project team.

3) When differences of opinion are holding up a project, and you want to get to the root cause and break through it.

4) You want to create alignment and commitment to an organizational change, and people will have to change their behavior to make it happen.

5) You want people to reconnect with their colleagues and maintain a positive team spirit.

Tips for Conducting the Meeting

Once you’ve decided a meeting is necessary, how can you increase the likelihood of a good ROI? Here are a few tips for making any meeting more effective:

- Make sure the meeting has a specific purpose and desired outcome(s).

- Consider using a neutral facilitator if the content of the meeting is complex, there are office politics in play, or you expect a high level of conflict.

- Create a group memory. Track agreements and next steps and ensure all attendees receive these. Hint: these are generally more concrete and actionable than meeting “minutes.”

- As a group, agree on what worked and didn’t at the end of the meeting. Use this Plus/Delta to continuously improve the quality of the meeting process.

Meetings are a microcosm of an organization’s culture. Sluggish meetings are may be a sign of a culture that is averse to change and improvement. On the other hand, effective meetings – with open, honest and energetic participation – indicate an efficient, collaborative culture. If you want to make an impact on the way your organization operates, start with improving the quality of your meetings.