b'LEADERSHIP GUIDE|How To HaveProductive MeetingsAt WorkWasted time cost companies millions annually. Heres how your organization can avoid the issueBy Kristen Digwood, MSPT, DPT, CLTW eve all been there. We walk out of a long meeting and wonderor shorter, whenever possible. Yahoos Marissa Mayer will sched-what exactly was accomplished. ule 10-minute meetings, out of necessity for her busy schedule. The Meetings dominate business life in America today.team at Percolate sets 15 minutes as the default length for all meet-According to the National Statistics Council, 37 percent of employeeings, adjusting up or down as needed. Percolate values the 15-min-time is spent in meetings. Other data indicates there are 11 millionute default so highly, they framed it in their set of six meeting rules.business meetings every day.While meetings are necessary and can be productive, its amazingSTATE THE MEETING OBJECTIVE AND STICK TO IT.how many ineffective meetings take place every day at the workplace.Peter F. Drucker wrote in his book The Effective Executive:Each month, people spend an estimated 31 hours in unproductiveThe key to running an effective meeting is to decide in advance meetings, and the U.S. spends a whopping $37 billion on salaries forwhat kind of meeting it will be. Different kinds of meetings require hours spent in unnecessary meetings. different forms of preparation and different results: Knowing that a productive meeting has the power to focus teams,A meeting to prepare a statement, an announcement, or a press prevent excessive emails and save money, what do you need to do torelease. For this to be productive, one member has to prepare a ensure you are using this time wisely? draft beforehand. At the meetings end, a preappointed mem-I scanned research articles, blogs, and successful company adviceber has to take responsibility for disseminating the final text.on this topic and found some common themes and ideas to use asA meeting to make an announcementfor example, an orga-guidelines: nizational change. This meeting should be confined to the announcement and a discussion about it.KEEP MEETINGS TO 15 MINUTES. A meeting in which one member reports. Nothing but the Parkinsons law is the adage that work expands so as to fill the timereport should be discussed.available for its completion. It is sometimes applied to the growthA meeting in which several or all members report. Either there of bureaucracy in an organization. This was articulated by Cyrilshould be no discussion at all or the discussion should be lim-Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of an essay pub- ited to questions for clarification. Alternatively, for each report, lished in The Economist in 1955 and since republished online. 1,2It wasthere could be a short discussion in which all participants may reprinted with other essays in the book Parkinsons Law: The Pursuit ofask questions. If this is the format, the reports should be dis-Progress (London, John Murray, 1958).tributed to all participants well before the meeting. At this kind ISTOCKFor this reason, you may want to keep meetings to 15 minutesof meeting, each report should be limited to a present timefor 22 LEADERSHIP GUIDE|2020| www.elitecme.com'