Dear Career Coach

I’ve recently joined a new company and I can’t believe the number of meetings I’m forced to go to or set up.  Most of them are a waste of time and it’s literally driving me crazy.  What’s your advice?

I’m willing to bet that one question you didn’t ask when you were being interviewed for your new job was whether the company had a strong meeting culture!  In some organisations, either due to a complex international/matrix structure, or because of a highly consultative working culture, staff members are expected to attend frequent meetings, whether face to face or via web conferencing.

While some of these meetings may well be important, it’s clear that, in your experience, some of your meetings are unnecessary and completely unproductive.  You may not be able to get out of all the meetings that you would like, but it’s certainly worth considering some approaches to help reduce the number you have to attend, and trying to make those that you do attend more productive.

The better prepared you and your team are for meetings, the more effectively you can use the time. Before setting up a meeting, have a clear idea of the outcomes you want to achieve from getting people together. If it’s about sharing information, can this be done in another way?

However informal the meeting, make sure everyone knows why it’s being called and what is on the agenda.  It helps to keep the meeting focused and also prevents people from coming with their own agenda and derailing the process. By managing expectations of what a meeting is intended to achieve, you can help prevent it being dragged on unnecessarily.

It’s also worth considering whether you can hold a meeting with fewer people. It may be that a core group of people can achieve the outcomes needed, shortening the time spent together, as fewer people will need to contribute their thoughts and ideas. While pruning down the numbers, though, make sure you don’t exclude the key people i.e. those with decision making powers or the expertise needed to reach decisions and to take things forward.

Along with the agenda, agree on how the meeting will be conducted; who will be speaking or presenting and what the role of the other participants should be. If you are trying to get consensus on a particular idea, consider bringing some options for discussion rather than trying to create something from scratch during the meeting, when everyone will want to input their point of view.

To keep the discussion focused and productive, set an end time at the start of the meeting and keep track of the agenda against the timeframe of the meeting.  If there is unfinished business that can be agreed among two or three people, suggest that they do so afterwards and minimise the time other people have to stay.

All the best!