The benefits and purpose of meetings

We spend on average, 30-50% of our time in meetings, and 4 hours preparing for meetings. That is almost half of our working life. Now you don't mind giving up your time for great meetings, but when they are pointless, it's a huge waste of time, energy and resource.

Humans are collaborative. We actually come up with better ideas and create greater accountability in great meetings. When done well, we all grow. You just need to be clear about what is the purpose of the meeting, how best to conduct it to achieve the purpose, who needs to be there and whether there is a suitable alternative. Meetings are still one of the best tools we have if to achieve one of the following:

Inspire action. If you want someone to do something, an email isn't going to cut it. Getting people to change a behaviour, mindset or change priorities is more likely to happen if you meet with them face-to-face or at least talk to them. Open dialogue enables you to build trust, gain insight about where the other people are in mindset, skill or motivation, and build a stronger connection. We build relationships through conversation, meeting people face to face and sharing moments. The quality of your meetings directly influences the quality of your relationships. People are more likely to get into inspired action when they know, like and trust you. If you include them in the conversation, they are more likely to weigh in and buy in. If they commit to you, face to face, they are more likely to become personally accountable.

Avoid confusion. How many times have you left a meeting, thinking everyone was aligned, only to find out they do something different to what you expected? Something has gone wrong and misunderstanding and confusion occurs. When you need to communicate something, and confusion or misunderstanding is not an option, a meeting is your best option. It might be a phone call or face to face, but the key is to allow others to "hear it from the horses mouth". Then create open dialogue by asking questions, being receptive and then at the end of the meeting, ask everyone, what do you think has been agreed here. Who is doing what and by when?

Create solutions. We want to hear about problems, but only when they are followed by solutions. Creative meetings are one of the best ways to boost innovation, collaborate on solutions and create change. Now you have to prime the members for creativity. If someone said think of an idea, you would probably look at them oddly. Instead, frame the problem, hypothesis or question and create a structure around how people can contribute. Explain that they will be in breakout groups or huddle around a whiteboard. Perhaps you ask them to reflect on a question over coffee before sharing their best thinking in the meeting. Priming people for creativity and solutions is vital and a meeting space is the perfect place.

In doing so, you learn about each other, the challenges they face, the way they think and their different expertise. You build understanding and closer connections. The meeting space, if done well, amplifies performance.

Changing your meetings from bad ones to good ones will have a knock-on effect throughout your business.  By increasing the quality of your meetings, you will increase the quality of the work and performance.