Four ways to stop wasting your (meeting) time
Top Tips for Business Owners
Meetings continue to waste people's time. And what I'm discovering is why most individuals hold meetings—just to meet. Most people do not contribute, and more importantly, work is put back. And we still need to have meetings. Yeah. If I had $1 for every time you walked out of a meeting and everyone exclaimed, "What a waste." How rich would you be????
Hey, pass this on to a friend. They need some rocket science business growth in their life as well!
It's Not Rocket Science! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Share now and get them some free stuff, to boot!
Sick of getting emails from me? Or have a new email address? Make changes below
Transcript
Hey there! I'm Stuart Webb—an entrepreneur, CEO, podcaster, and your dedicated host—returning with another insightful episode tailored specifically for your business. This is another one take video blog where all the mistakes will stay in
Meetings continue to waste people's time. And what I'm discovering is why most individuals hold meetings—just to meet. Most people do not contribute, and more importantly, work is put back. And we still need to have meetings. Yeah. If I had $1 for every time you walked out of a meeting and everyone exclaimed, "What a waste." How rich would you be????
And I believe it's virtually an epidemic. Right. I hate to use that word, but it is true.
Meetings don't always have a clear objective, and they haven't determined who should or shouldn't attend the meeting. And this is why they are wasting so much time. The other cause is that they're following the incorrect meeting process. Leaders are not sure how to run a highly efficient, compact meeting. So what is the answer?
How do we ensure that meetings have a purpose? You should clarify. If I'm going to get these people to meet, you should ask why. Why do I need to get them to meet, and what do we hope to achieve? Because if you haven't done this, you're wasting everyone's time. So, let me give you an example.
Many sales teams say, "Oh, we need to have a weekly team meeting, right?" With clients, I chat with them and ask them to tell me about the meeting. I know some people have daily sales team meetings; I always ask them to tell me about yours. They say, "Oh, they are so boring." What are you talking about? Oh, the exact subject we discussed the day before. I'm going, so why are you having the meeting if you're going to rehash what you stated the day before?
The answer was, "Well, I don't know. We have always held a meeting." When I ask the manager, I ask why they do it. and they often say something like, "Oh, we are meant to have meetings."
No, no, no.
But wouldn't it be amazing if they were shorter and more concise? Yes, there is a way. There are four sorts of meetings to choose from. Because each team meeting has a unique methodology, many people confuse the four types.
The first, and perhaps the most typical, is what I refer to as a reporting or check-in meeting. That is where folks just report what their activities and KPIs are.
The second sort of meeting is a problem-solving meeting, where an issue needs to be resolved.
The third is a decision-making session. We have already reviewed all of the facts and information. Now we have to decide what we are going to do.
The fourth one is a strategy development meeting, which implies we need to address some major issues. We need to develop a strategy that will be much more in-depth.
Each of these sessions has a unique process. So when I try to combine a check-in meeting, a problem-solving meeting, and a decision-making meeting all at once, half of the people there say, "Well, it's not relevant to me; it's not in my area, but I'm going to sit here for an hour while you guys talk in circles about something that has nothing to do with me."
The most critical step is to choose the correct style of meeting.
At one time, I held a reporting check in to see where we needed to be today. What are we supposed to accomplish? And there was a seven-minute stand-up meeting in the morning. We put up visible LCD screens so that everyone could view reports and navigate through the dashboard no matter where they were—at home or in the office. We all stood, even if we were at desks (and it was a rule that cameras had to be on). and we did the same thing at the end of the day. And the conclusion of the day usually lasted five minutes.
So that is check-in meetings, but what about how to make a decision?
Compression planning is an excellent strategy. It employs a visual storyboard method, which is really significant when it comes to planning, particularly strategic planning. The majority of the population are visual learners, which means that if they see something, they not only understand it but can also act on it. And this is where most strategic planning sessions fail because they devolve into an argument fest, or who talks the loudest to get their point across, which shuts everyone else down.
So compression planning uses a visual approach called storyboards, which allow each person's ideas to be captured on a card. It is pinned up on the board where everyone can see it. Then there's a consensus procedure in which everyone in the meeting votes on the most essential issues. Most often, they are given three votes, maybe by putting a dot on a card with a coloured pen. Those with the most votes are brought forward to be further investigated, with strategies built around them. So this is a very remarkable procedure. For example, when I was working with a large international corporation, they told me that they had a problem with their expenditure and needed to remove $90 million.
So I need to convince the leaders of all departments to give up a set sum, up to $90 million, which couldn’t just be equally shared because various departments had different needs. The CEO called me, and he said, "You know, we've been arguing about it for a month; I want you to come in; we might need a week." And I answered, "Oh, well, I think we can do a lot less than that." We did it in five hours because they could see everything. It isolates emotions.
What it does is unite everyone. I've used it for both big and small businesses. But what it does is allow folks to understand exactly what the ideas are and then participate in or vote on whatever direction they believe we should move in. Again, this is democracy in action, as the majority of votes take those ideas forward. So it becomes a very excellent approach, but people must buy into it, because if I vote for it, I will most likely have to help implement it as well.
If you found this video helpful, remember to hit that like button and share it with fellow entrepreneurs. And, of course, subscribe for more insights and inspiration. Stay tuned for more valuable information, and share your thoughts in the comments below.
If you are a business owner currently turning over £/$10K - £/$50K per month and want to grow to £/$100K - £/$500k per month Download my free resource on everything you need to grow your business on a single page :
It's a detailed breakdown of how you can grow your business to 7-figures in a smart and sustainable way
Help us to help more business owners grow and scale their income and profits and give them back time using the secrets that the biggest businesses use to ensure recurring leads and make recurring profits year on year.