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Any discussion of time management will focus on ways to make meetings better. Bartleby, a columnist with The Economist, developed this law about corporate gatherings of 10 people or more: “80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted.” The paradox is that the same people who hate meetings are paranoid about a meeting to which they are not invited.
So managers attempt to invite as many people as might be interested. One alternative to the large meeting is a morning huddle in which a small group update each other on progress in a gathering that takes no more than 15 minutes.
Some meetings are designed to persuade attendees to approve a decision. Others are to learn about the participants’ ideas.
In the first, the chair drives the agenda. When the purpose of the meeting is to learn, a different approach is required. Everyone attending should be encouraged to speak. The adoption of a “no interruption rule” will prevent any attendee from being intimidated. In a learning meeting, members might be asked to submit views in advance.
A key to a useful meeting is to get the agenda right. The most contentious items should be tackled at the start rather than the end. Perhaps the solution to tedious gatherings is to have fewer of them. One of the consequences of the pandemic is that managers learned meetings with electronic aids such as Zoom can be more productive than face-to-face gatherings.
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