Staff meetings are one of the bigger time wasters in any organization. Back before I started my company, I worked for a trade association in Washington, DC. Staff meetings there turned into a 60-minute plus event where each of us gave a status update on projects. They turned into nothing more than a chat session where at the end, nothing was accomplished.
My experience isn’t an isolated one. One of the biggest complaints I hear with clients is the lack of productivity due to incessant meetings. Managers and executives whine the amount of time they spend in them and lament the fact that some days they go from meeting to meeting to meeting which leaves them no time to do anything else.
I have a solution for you. It comes from my time in the Navy. Hold Morning Quarters.
One of the few efficiencies I witnessed in my 15 year career in the Navy was Morning Quarters. As the Leading Petty Officer at the Branch Dental Clinic in at the Bangor Submarine Base in Silverdale Washington in the mid-1990s, I’d assemble the staff in the dental lab at 0650. After calling them to attention, I’d read the official Plan of the Day which was a daily briefing from the command regarding events and policies. I’d ask the staff if there were any issues and then dismiss them to their jobs. 10 minutes max. What were the secrets and how can you implement them into your non-military organization?
- Do the meeting first thing in the morning. Quarters were held before the patients filed in . It required having the workplace set up the night before so you could hit the ground running. Nothing worse than a long meeting followed up by unresolved issues that await you when it’s over.
- Stand at attention. Three important suggestions here. Meetings go faster when people are uncomfortable. Sit them in a nice room with comfortable chairs and they’ll soon check out. Secondly, calling a group to attention (and I know this isn’t doable in a civilian workplace) requires them to stand still and focus straight ahead – no distractions. Your challenge in your workplace is to remove the distractions. Keep electronic devices OUT of your meetings. Pencil and paper only. Finally, when the group is at attention, only the meeting leader speaks. Don’t worry, there is time allotted for others to ask questions once the word is passed.
- Use a Plan of the Day as a script. The POD highlighted the most important information. Your version could include important deadlines, events to attend, or new policies to be aware of. Use the script. Don’t deviate.
- Keep it short and sweet. When you’re standing, focused, and get the information in a clear, quick, and concise format, the meeting goes quicker. Keep staff meetings to 15 minutes or less. If that seems too short, then you’ve just become accustomed to wasting time as an organizational norm. If it’s that important, put the information out in a different format that doesn’t require everyone to sit in a meeting.
As a business owner, I know the value and cost of time and what it means to waste it. If you’re a manager or executive in an organization, you need to think about this and then start counting up how much time is spent in meetings. Time is money. Meetings are the thieves that steal it.