In the U.S., people attend approximately 11 million meetings a day, with the average person spending three hours a week on meetings (and nearly a third spend five hours or more). While some meetings are critical, generative spaces where everyone leaves motivated and validated, most — about 71% — are unproductive and a waste of time. These unproductive meetings cost organizations a whopping $37 billion a year in lost productivity.
Don’t let your association fall into the trap of a bad meeting. Here are 14 ways to make meetings better.
We’ve all been in bad meetings. There are many different things that make meetings bad, including:
In short, bad meetings offer no value for participants and may actually lead to resentment and poor performance.
Before you throw in the towel on meetings, here are 14 ways to make them better.
Everyone has spent time in a meeting that could've been an email. Make sure your meeting actually needs to be in person (or via Zoom).
This sets expectations and outlines what the meeting’s goals are. It also lets attendees know that you are focused and have a purpose for scheduling a meeting.
Does every person from every department actually need to be there? Restrict the meeting invitation to people who will actually benefit (or who need the information for later use or decision-making).
Jeff Bezos calls this the “two pizza rule.” If you need more than two pizzas to feed everyone in the room, the meeting is too large.
The physical space of the meeting encompasses the size of the room, its temperature, the ambient noise level, and the chairs and tables available. Don’t try to shove people into uncomfortable chairs in a too-small room that is loud and distracting. That’s a recipe for disaster.
If you need charts, graphs, pens, technology, or anything else, make sure you have it with you. Stopping to retrieve something you forgot is a waste of everyone’s time.
The average meeting attention span is approximately 15 minutes, but that number gets slashed in half if you’re just lecturing. Keep attendees engaged by asking questions and getting people talking.
But keep this in mind: some people prefer to process information quietly and may not want to chat about it. This is a legitimate work style, so don’t force participation.
Depending on the meeting’s agenda, it can be easy to slide into complaining or negativity. While there should be space for working through legitimate concerns, this type of talk is not necessarily productive in a larger meeting.
Redirect comments that spiral into negativity or stray too far off track. Make sure to follow up on any issues that were brought up during the meeting — the goal is not to silence anyone’s concerns but to address them at a more appropriate time.
Starting and ending on time is a concrete way to show meeting attendees that you value their time. There are some simple strategies to ensure meetings end on time.
Another way to keep meetings short and avoid going over time is to hold them while standing. This unorthodox strategy is best for meetings that are short to begin with and should only be implemented if all attendees are capable of standing.
Without delay, share the meeting minutes. Highlight:
Avoid singling anyone out unless it is for positive notes, and end the minutes with the date and time of a follow-up meeting (if needed).
Meeting Minutes Template
Never have a bad meeting again! Download our meeting minutes templates.
Download Now
Ask for (and gracefully receive) feedback on the meeting itself. You might think the meeting was a marvel of productive efficiency, but the attendees might have another opinion. Positive or negative, feedback is the way we grow and become better at everything we do.
If feedback is negative and challenging to absorb, take a few days before reading it again. Consider your goals as a leader in general, and try to frame the feedback not as a personal issue but as an opportunity to make improvements professionally.
Some associations have embraced a post-COVID hybrid model, with meetings remaining online. Other associations with members across the globe have always met virtually. These gatherings can be improved, too.
Zoom is just one tool in the online meeting space. Use schedulers, note-taking software, and other tech to keep meetings engaging and on track.
Few things are more frustrating in online meetings than technology that just won’t cooperate. Lag times and frozen screens will kill your meeting’s momentum like nothing else.
If attendees are participating in deep discussions in the comment section, how do you know if they are getting the information that is being delivered? And while it’s nice to get positive feedback in the moment, even supportive comments can be distracting and take the focus off the meeting’s goals.
Limit commenting and questions during the meeting, but open them up for the last five to ten minutes.
A moderator or host is an invaluable tool for making online meetings better. This designated person admits late attendees to the meeting, fields questions from participants, and organizes the questions and comments made during the meeting itself.
Designating a moderator is a great way to strike the balance between turning off comments completely while still allowing meeting attendees to comment and ask questions in real-time.
Everyone in your association will appreciate your efforts to improve meetings. With just these few simple tips, you won’t need to throw in the towel on a bad meeting ever again.