I am not one of those people who declare that meetings are all useless and that you as a leader should stop having meetings. That is great for a shock-effect blog or book title but stopping meetings is just not realistic. And actually counter-productive. I really think that meetings are a great way to lead an organization, develop individuals and build teams. But you need to ask yourself why you are having a meeting in the first place.
If people just show up knowing that each will take turn to flip through a set of Powerpoint slides ending with "Are there any questions ?" then of course you cannot expect much engagement or team development.
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| Source: Harvard Business Review |
I recently came across this statistic in Harvard Business Review about how people evaluate their meetings in terms of "bringing the team closer together". 62% said that the meetings do not bring the team closer together. That is really worrisome. How do you expect a team to grow and get to work better together if you use the meetings for "other priorities" ? There are very few opportunities where a whole leadership team is together. That was the main feedback from a team I recently worked with. The entire management team of a manufacturing plant was together only every 3 months to listen (!) to the quarterly update of the plant results ! At all other times, it was only sub-sets of managers that worked together on particular topics. The whole group of managers had NEVER worked together on a problem together. Yet they were seen by the organization - and expected to be seen as such - as the "leadership team".
Think about why you are having a meeting. Take at least 5 minutes at the end to reflect - as a team - on what you just did, what worked and what didn't, and what to do different next time. Maybe, just maybe, you will develop more meaningful meetings, and the beginnings of a real team.
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