The first step is to reduce it by 50%. I will not get into why we should actually have no meetings unless it is knowledge sharing in which case it is not a meeting, but a forum where one talks and others listen. I will get into how?
In consulting I have to work across various departments and have an action item implemented across those departments. I rarely have meetings and if I do, they never exceed 15 minutes and at the end of the 15 minutes every party involved knows what is to be done, who will do it and by when it is to be done, what is the escalation path in case of delays and why we are doing a particular thing.
I learnt this from my brother who was in Japan for a short while and came back with these inputs.
1. Have the meeting agenda and all points for discussion circulated to all in advance
2. If one of the action items is for different interfaces to agree or decide on a course of action, much of the work should be done before the meeting itself, talking to the various parties, discussing options - merits & demerits
3. The meeting place is only for the sake of all agreeing to a particular action publicly or in other words committing themselves in front of others
4. If parties have conflict of interest we take it offline and get back again after going through point 2 all over
5. In a meeting we only accept or reject the action item - in which case we go back to the drawing board
6. If meeting exceeds 15 minutes, take out the chairs and continue meetings standing. Meetings get done over with very fast after that.
I hate meetings where 10 people come together and then 3 of them are having a discussion while other 7 waste their time.
How much time do you spend on meetings every week? How about cutting them down to 50% without loss of effectiveness?
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