Meeting mania or useless meeting Tutorial

Are meetings helping or hindering your productivity? In "Meeting Mania or Useless Meeting", we dive deep into the staggering statistics revealing how executives spend an average of 16 years in meetings. Discover the hidden costs, the importance of effective facilitation, and learn how to turn those tedious gatherings into powerful collaboration moments. Don't miss out on this essential guide to improve your teamwork today!

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on average,

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an executive spends 16 years in meetings over the course of his or her career.

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Is this useless,

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lost,

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wasted time?

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We will be exploring the question in three parts the excess of meetings,

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the excessive cost of meetings,

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and the reasons why we waste so much time on them.

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Help Meeting mania.

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Yes,

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a lot of employees complain about having too many meetings,

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more specifically in Latin countries.

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Is it a craving for human contact,

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a taste for debating ideas?

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Is it the cerebral side that pushes us to

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have a preference for reflection rather than action?

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More than 2 out of 3 executives report having 5 meetings per week.

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The higher the hierarchical rank,

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the more time you spend in meetings.

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According to the Express,

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55% of corporations hold at least 7 meetings a

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week in European countries and the United States.

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Meetings are above all,

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too long.

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An IFOP study estimates 1 hour 19 minutes to be the length of an average meeting.

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The bigger a corporation is,

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the longer the meetings are.

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It has been proven

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that the attention span of an adult begins to drop

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at 52 minutes.

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We can therefore conclude that we lose an average 27 minutes per meeting.

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For a quarter of the meeting's participants,

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the attention span begins to diminish after 30 minutes.

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Those aged more than 50 years old estimate they stay attentive for 58 minutes,

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while those less than 35 years old state 45 minutes.

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Is there a generational difference?

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Does this mean that meetings in the future will be more

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productive if the meeting facilitator sticks to a 45 minute window?

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In any case,

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they have the crucial task of making meetings lively and participative.

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In fact,

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1 out of 3 executives report having dozed off during a meeting.

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And yet,

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according to studies,

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meetings are useful for thinking,

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building,

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and deciding together.

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98% of respondents believe that these meetings are necessary.

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The problem is then,

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not in the meeting itself,

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but rather in what we make of it.

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Second point,

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why are meetings so costly?

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Meetings represent a huge hidden cost for corporations.

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5 meetings per week of 1 hour 20 minutes each for 2 out of 3 executives,

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especially since 88% of respondents stated that

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they have already felt useless during meetings.

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If you call in 10 people for a 1 hour meeting,

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it will cost you 10 hours,

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if not more.

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The time it takes to go,

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wait for the meeting to begin,

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and then dive back into the project is equivalent to 30 more minutes.

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Does this meeting bring 15 hours of productivity?

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The profitability of a meeting

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lies in setting clear expectations when you call one.

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So

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to know if the meeting is truly necessary,

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ask yourself three questions.

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One,

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what will happen if we do not hold the meeting?

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Would this change something?

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And if so,

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for whom?

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2,

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what will happen if the expected outcome is not reached during the meeting?

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Is the result really important to you?

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3,

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can the expected outcome be reached without a meeting?

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Do you really need a meeting?

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Instead of holding a meeting,

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you could perhaps simplify the subject and discuss it by email,

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telephone,

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or chat

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and save time and money.

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About 10 years ago,

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David Grady caused a stir on the internet with

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a video about bad meetings in conference calls.

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He later on developed the MAS concept

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mindless acceptation syndrome.

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It is an involuntary reflex that makes a person accept a

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meeting request as soon as it pops up on their e-calendar.

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Pop accept.

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Ah,

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I have a meeting.

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I have to go.

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David Grady urges us with a lot of humor

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to dare click on the button maybe or tentative,

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and then find out what the agenda is

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and whether your presence is actually necessary.

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Why do we waste time in meetings?

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Three quarter of respondents think that their time is wasted

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in meetings while 98% believe that these meetings are necessary,

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necessary yet inefficient meetings.

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So the record must be set straight on three points

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the participants,

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the framework,

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and meeting facilitation.

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Invitations are often too exhaustive and misdirected,

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especially if the people invited,

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affected by MAS mindless acceptation syndrome,

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don't dare to decline it.

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Besides,

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there are often

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too many participants,

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more than 8 to 10,

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to make the meeting an efficient moment of co-construction.

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2,

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the framework.

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First of all,

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the framework,

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as we have seen,

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includes the duration of the meeting,

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which reaches 1 hour 20 minutes

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instead of the less than 1 hour

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recommended for securing the majority's attention.

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Lack of preparation from the meeting leader as well as from

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the participants also contribute in wasting a lot of time.

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1 in 4 employees confess to attending a meeting without knowing what it is about.

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What are the consequences of a lack of preparation?

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The participants are lost.

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The facilitator has to re-explain,

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and the exchange is less fruitful.

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No one has given it any thought beforehand.

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Basically,

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the meeting is off the rails.

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Failing to set the right framework also means ending a

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meeting with an unclear decision or no decision at all.

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In this regard,

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Google requires that in every meeting there must be.

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A decision maker and states that if there is no decision to make,

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then the meeting should not take place.

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27% of respondents say that they often,

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if not always,

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leave a meeting without exactly knowing what they have to do.

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Let's talk about meeting facilitation,

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overly long debates,

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digressions and off subjects,

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debates on individual cases.

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21% of executives say they have attended a

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meeting without even daring to speak once.

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Here is another rule from Google.

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Each person must participate and share their opinion at the meeting,

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otherwise they should not be there.

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Yes,

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sending them a report is enough.

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Without appropriate facilitation,

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the participants become bored and disengaged.

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They stay in a static sitting position and are under minimum demand.

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Then

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they take their phones out and settle in

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the comfort and redundancy of unproductive meetings.

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To avoid wasting their time in meetings,

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50% admit that they sometimes read and send emails.

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Half of them admit that they work on one or multiple files,

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while 37% simply doodle.

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Do you want to avoid wasting time in meetings?

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Properly targeting.

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The participants,

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the framework,

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and the facilitation of the meeting

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are the keys that we will explore in the next videos.

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May you never again come across the 15%

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who leave your meeting unable to recall

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what was said or decided.

Mandarine AI: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW