Why am I here?
Was it really necessary to gather for this?
Has it served any purpose?
If you have asked yourself these questions, you have most likely experienced the nightmare of an unproductive meeting.
When you get down to the facts, the scenario becomes quite daunting. According to a study from Harvard University, 70% of work meetings are considered absolutely pointless.
For this study, hundreds of managers and employees were interviewed, yielding the following results:
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65% believe that meetings prevent them from completing pending tasks.
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71% define them as inefficient acts that serve no purpose.
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64% associate them with a reduced ability to think deeply about the challenges their company or department is facing.
Unproductive meetings drain employees’ energy, expose poor team dynamics, and negatively impact their work. We, as much as you, want this to change. Thus, in this article, we share with you three different strategies that will help you improve the efficiency of your meetings and enhance team collaboration.
Why meetings become unproductive
If I had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings'. Dave Barry
The problem with meetings is simple yet devastating. Here are the top reasons that increase meeting unproductivity:
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There is not a clear and dedicated preparation for the meeting.
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There is a lack of communication about why each person was invited (i.e. how are they expected to contribute) and what the goal of the meeting is (i.e. what purpose does it serve).
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Ownership is not clearly defined - as Claire Hughes Johnson points out, there are typically three meeting roles in staff meetings, that may or may not be assigned to the meeting owner.
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The DRI - the one responsible for the meeting’s success
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The facilitator - the one responsible for keeping the meeting on time
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The notetaker - the one responsible for noting every important insight and decision
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Participants do not take ownership of the meeting outcome.
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People are meeting for every small issue, resulting in days of meetings.
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There is a monopolization of the discussion.
These are just a few examples, as the list can go on.
Here is what you can do to help alleviate meeting overload and eliminate pointless meetings:
Go async to avoid unproductive meetings
Synchronous meetings can often be a hindrance due to conflicting schedules and diverse time zones. Besides, they often become highly unproductive because they rely on participants' reactions instead of on their reflections.
This means, that when people are solely reacting and basing their decisions on first gut feelings, discussions tend to be unproductive, as people have not yet had the chance to think the issue through.
To overcome this challenge, you can consider embracing asynchronous meetings and consequently redefining how team members come together.
Benefits of async meetings
Here are our top-3 reasons to consider going async to overcome unproductive meetings:
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Schedule flexibility: Asynchronous meetings allow you to value individual contributions and understand that team members have unique schedules. They enable everyone to participate at their convenience, promoting a healthy balance between work and personal life.
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Enhanced reflection: Going async fosters your commitment to thoughtful decision-making. This allows team members to thoroughly process information before responding. Thus, contributing to well-founded discussions.
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Global inclusivity: With a globally distributed team it is important to prioritize global inclusivity. Asynchronous meetings facilitate the involvement of team members in different time zones, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration.
Best practices to incorporate async meetings into your workflow
Although we are increasingly mastering our way around digital and remote solutions, here are a few best-practices for you to take into account when leading async meetings:
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Use collaborative platforms: Leverage collaborative platforms to ensure seamless discussion and exchange of ideas.
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Create a structure for contributions: Establish clear deadlines for each team member's contribution, creating a structured and organized schedule.
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Make documentation easily accessible: Emphasize the availability of relevant documentation and resources to ensure that each team member is well-equipped and informed.
At Workjoy:
We use the meeting feature in the Workjoy app to easily schedule async meetings.
Every meeting always has a title - What the meeting is about - as well as an introduction - Why we are having this meeting. There is a clearly defined time-frame for the meeting to occur and we resort to a structured agenda to navigate the meeting.
The discussions happen proactively and on the commenting section of the meeting.
To learn more about async-meetings see: 7 Best Tools for Asynchronous Meetings, Successful Asynchronous Meetings - A Practical How-To
Do async check-ins
Transparency should be a fundamental value for your company as it fosters trust and team collaboration. To improve transparency, you can implement daily and weekly async check-ins.
These records are a digital map of what your team does every day and each week. You can use them to document tasks, achievements, and collaboration among team members. All this information can then be used to create reports. Project management tools can help you with this, making everything clear and more efficient.
Benefits of async check-ins
Here are our top-3 reasons to consider the use of daily and weekly async check-ins:
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Continuous monitoring: Maintain a dynamic view of individual and team progress over time through async check-ins, promoting continuous improvement.
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Identifying patterns: Identifying trends and recurring problems early on is essential. Async check-ins allow you to detect patterns and intervene proactively.
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Transparency: By providing visibility into daily activities, you foster a culture of openness and accountability among team members.
Best practices to use daily and weekly async check-ins
Here is what you can do to ensure efficiency when creating async check-ins:
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Use project management tools: Use project management tools for simplified data entry and comprehensive reporting.
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Create a structured report: Establish a clear structure for reporting, highlighting key milestones and addressing challenges transparently.
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Promote constructive feedback: Encourage constructive feedback among team members, for collaboration and driving continuous improvement.
At Workjoy:
We believe leaders should not be the bottleneck of their team’s work nor should they contribute to an unproductive environment.
Thus, at Workjoy, leaders use task status to quickly know where their team stands without interrupting them - a simple check of status can remove an entire status meeting. Plus, if there is the need to realign, leaders can do it through the task’s commenting section.
This ensures discussions keep organized and focused.
Focus your communication on tasks and projects
Effective communication is the cornerstone of success at any company. If your goal is to be productive, meetings and communication overall need to have a clear focus. Thus, we advise you to adopt task and project-based communication strategies.
Benefits of task and project-based communication
Here are our top-3 reasons to consider when trying to eliminate invaluable rambling and building a focused communication culture:
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Specific focus: Conversations revolve around specific tasks and projects, avoiding unnecessary tangents and maintaining a clear focus on objectives.
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Collaborative efficiency: By using task and project management platforms, you enhance collaborative efficiency by providing a centralized space to discuss, assign, and track tasks.
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Improved transparency: Task and project-based communication foster transparency by giving all team members a clear view of progress, deadlines, and challenges associated with each task or project.
Best practices to guarantee focused communication
Here is what you can do to ensure you stay on track and keep your conversations and discussions topic-based avoiding unproductive meetings:
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Use task and project management platforms to centralize communication and make it more effective.
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Clearly define roles and responsibilities for each task or project, ensuring efficient resource allocation and more effective communication.
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Establish regular tracking and review practices to assess progress and address any issues in a timely manner.
At Workjoy:
We have noticed and felt under our skin the pain of having long chat conversations where things become entangled and confusing to recall when you need to make a clear decision.
So, when we built Workjoy, we created a structured conversation system: one focus, one task, one conversation.
Instead of having one conversation where you discuss everything. You have multiple conversations each versing a specific topic, be it a task or a project. This was a game changer in the productivity of our team. Less stress, more valuable work.
Conclusion
The constant search to promote an efficient work environment led us to adopt innovative strategies to transform our work meetings. By following these three strategies, you not only say goodbye to unproductive meetings but also reinforce the collaboration and effectiveness of the entire team.
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Resorting to async meetings;
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Using daily and weekly async check-ins;
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Keep your communication based on tasks or projects.
The combination of these three strategies will improve your internal dynamics and also lay the foundation for a more cohesive and goal-oriented work environment.
And remember, to improve your meetings productivity and eliminate pointless meetings, you always need to plan ahead and create structure.