Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

Chapter 11

Meeting You Halfway

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”

—Dave Barry

Long story, short. Keep meetings lean by assigning time limits and moderators to get you out of the conference room and back into the game.

Defeat the Villains of Meetings

Meetings are a waste of time. Just ask any CEO.

According to the study “What Do CEOs Do?” by economists from Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics, “CEOs spend most of their time (85 percent) with other people. Meetings take up 60 percent of the working hours, and the remaining 25 percent is comprised of phone calls, conference calls, and public events.”¹

Some organizations have a culture that forces employees to spend their entire day in meetings. They have to complete any work they generate before or after these 9-to-5 marathons, or even on the weekends.

When you're in a meeting, you're not working. You're stuck in a conference room, and all your productivity has screeched to a halt.

But how can brevity break the bonds of wasteful meetings?

In this chapter, we will explore ways to make meetings less painful and more productive. Let's look at a few easy targets we can hit to make a dent:

1. Time: Reduce the amount we allocate for meetings. Too often, it's predictable and indiscriminate. (Why an hour? Wouldn't half an hour be enough?)

2. Type: Alter the basic format. Frequently, we're holding ...