Advance

CHAPTER 10“LET’S HAVE A MEETING”:Why They’re All Meaningless

You can always tell when a company has become too bureaucratic. The rote response to almost everything is “let’s have a meeting.” It’s such an epidemic that people now mistake the meeting for the action. How about solving the problem today?

It’s no secret that most people don’t like meetings: too long, too boring, too frequent, too many people, and too often not accomplishing much of anything. People check out—on mute during conference calls, doing email, catching up on the sports scores.

Think about it—how many times have you stopped by someone’s desk who’s obviously on a call, but the person assures you “it’s OK, we can talk.” The call is on mute and he’s having a conversation with you, instead of paying attention to what’s being said on the line. If that isn’t a clear indication of too many unimportant meetings, I don’t know what is. Author and leadership expert Patrick Lencioni calls it “death by meeting.”

Q I attend so many meetings—most of them unproductive. I can’t get any real work done. What should I do?

A Meetings these days are the solution to everything. If there’s a problem, you have a meeting. If there’s a new opportunity, you have a meeting. Schedules get so crammed, you can’t get anything meaningful ...