Efficient Meetings Might save you Millions.
Cindy Skalicky 🔷
Professional Speaker | Author | Training F250 Leaders in Science & Tech | Helping You Tell 'Stories that Stick' w/ Confidence that Captivates. Become a top 5% Leader in Exec Comms.
I am a member of a Board of Directors, in year 2 of a 3 year term. Meetings in Year 1 averaged 4 hours. We all want shorter meetings.
In Year 1 that didn't happen. We'd start at 6:00 and hope to end by 10:00.
Once, we were there past 12 midnight.
🌟But guess what! At last month's meeting?
We finished in 1 hour and 47 minutes!! We slashed our meeting by over 50%. It felt amazing. It was a "We Nailed It!" feeling. 👇🏼I even took a picture of my laptop clock ... out of sheer excitement:
When I left, I thought, what will I do with this extra TIME?
So I drove to a local wine bar, enjoyed a glass of Malbec and cranked out an hour on a project. It got me thinking about the value of time saved, specifically, the value of efficient meetings.
Twenty people got to go home 2 hours early. That's time with families, time to themselves, more sleep, time to rejuvenate before tomorrow, etc. That's high value.
In large companies, I ask about this. As we discuss options I say, "What will shorter meetings mean for your team?"
People go into a dream-like state.
"Oh Cindy geez," said one leader at a Fortune 250 company. "Think of all the salaries we have in the room for a 5 hour update call. They all earn over $100K ...
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"...If we could cut the meeting down and put them back in the lab faster, it would save us millions over the course of a year."
It would save us millions over the course of a year.
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How are your meetings? Do they drone on and on? Do people go over time, share too much detail, is there anyone at the helm running it with an eye on efficiency?
We did 3 things to shorted that meeting:
1) We communicated our goal to everyone: A BOD objective is shorter meetings this year.
2) I shared ideas for how to accomplish this as BOD members. When we give our reports, we aim for 3 items the audience must know. We focus the message points beforehand.
3) We helped others who speak in the meeting learn tactics, too. We requested new formats, for example, moving Q/A sessions to the end of reports vs. the beginning.
The whole tone changed. That 1 hour 47 minute meeting might have been a fluke, but I don't think so. Even if it was 'just luck', now we all have a taste of what a 1 hour 47 minute BOD meeting feels like, and we want more.
What would you ADD as a tip to shorten or create more efficient meetings? What are shorter meetings WORTH to you, to your team?
Thank you for sharing this powerful idea, I will try to be moe aware of this
Executive Director - Technology Control | Issues Management | Technology Audits | Risk and Control Self Assessments | Strategy and Execution
1yExcellent post Cindy. I have noticed peers scheduling meetings for 25 mins instead of 30 and even beating that time by ‘giving time back’, which makes us feel like we got money💰back. Starting on time and using your tone and pitch can help drive the audience to make decisions or reach consensus early in a call rather than in the last 5 mins.
I make complex things simple & boring things interesting 💡 Creative Catalyst, Visual Facilitator & Brand Specialist for Innovation & Tech, Speaker, Semiotician, New Yorker Cartoonist
1yShorter meetings are great, and especially those that end with actual decisions, Cindy Skalicky 🔷 ! That's what I love about facilitating meetings that act more like interactive workshops, using design thinking approaches borrowed from #innovation to: 1. get everyone "working alone together," generating their best ideas without being swayed by the loudest voices 2. be inclusive, without endless back and forth discussion or contrived "culture" exercises 3. make it visual, so everyone sees their contributions reflected in real time, and no one feels the need to repeat themselves (sometimes more than once!) 4. "Time-box" every activity or decision so the timer (not you) is the "bad guy" and we keep moving 5. Leave the meeting with clarity on what was decided and what happens next! When everyone knows the meeting could not have been an email, and they all feel shared ownership of the outcome, it's a more satisfying experience while also being (usually) a lot shorter too. Do you bring innovation practices like this to other kinds of meetings?
4x Founder. Creator. Builder. Maker of Things. Just a punk rock kid from Boston.
1yClear rules are always a good start: – Meetings are for reporting and BRIEF Q&A about important things that may not have been covered in the report. – All phones are turned off (not set to vibrate), and no laptops! – Nobody leaves to take a call etc. unless it's an emergency. Whatever it is, it can wait. – Meetings are not a forum for discussion or for solving anything. – Everyone who needs to hear the reports is required to attend. Absent attendees need to get the information at another time (a surrogate attendee, for example). This follow-up is not the responsibility of the reporter. – It is not the reporter's responsibility to coordinate schedules. – And finally, meetings should be phased per the agenda. This allows groups to shuffle in and out as required. – Workgroups are not for reporting. This is the time to work out solutions, strategies, etc. – Workgroups should have a leader. It's not a free-for-all. – Everyone leaves with their to-do list, and it's their responsibility to follow up and make things happen. In all cases, someone should be assigned to be the timekeeper, responsible for keeping things on track. This isn't an extra attendee; it's someone who needs to be there for other purposes.
The Leading Expert in Brain-based Strategic Humor to achieve true success, lasting significance & genuine happiness.
1ySo many of the meetings I'm involved in seem to be governed by Parkinson's Law: "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." I love where you're going with this Cindy Skalicky 🔷!