You know the drill – you walk into work on Monday morning, grab your coffee, and head for the morning meeting. Everyone gets a chance to talk, giving an update that lasts maybe 45 seconds. Somehow you’re in there for an hour and a half, and none of it has felt remotely necessary. The average person spends 11.8 hours of their 40 hour work week in Office meetings, and the vast majority of that is wasted time. But what if there were a better way?
Are Office meetings Really Necessary?
More than three quarters of people think that Office meetings are completely unnecessary. The meeting never seems to stay on topic, there is often a lot of repetition, and there’s always at least one person who spends a lot of time talking just for the sake of talking. Most people are performing other tasks while they are in a meeting, which means they probably aren’t paying attention to what is going on anyway.
Even when teams are in different locations there are still time wasting meetings taking place via conference calls and video conferencing. The major drawback here is technology failure - frozen screens, bad connections, and slow internet service prevents people from being able to communicate effectively. And it can also make for a large group of just downright frustrated people.
So why do we have meetings to begin with? For starters, it’s important to be on the same page as a team. Projects often require a fair amount of collaboration - you can’t do it alone. Teamwork involves collaboration, but meetings aren’t always the best way to achieve that collaboration. There is a better way to communicate with your team and to use your time more effectively.
How Can We Make Meetings Better?
Screen sharing can help make virtual meetings more effective. This helps to ensure everyone is on the same page and it saves time from people not knowing whose turn it is to talk. Ensuring the WiFi signal is working properly before a meeting can also mitigate time lost to technology malfunction. Collaboration tools can also prevent meetings altogether - organizing projects into channels on collaboration tools helps you to keep progress marked in a way that is easy to refer back to as the project progresses.
Leveraging the latest technology is the key to preventing lost time in Office meetings that can lead to frustration among your employees. Frustrated employees don’t collaborate on projects well, and when projects stall that can mean bad news for your company. Studies show:
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51% of employees want tech that works at the touch of a button
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44% of employees want wireless technology for meetings
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44% of employees want to be able to use different devices
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40% of employees want to be able to collaborate from different locations
Standardizing and modernizing your company’s technology to make the most of meeting time and collaboration is crucial to keeping your employees happy and projects moving forward. Learn more about mastering meetings to make the most of collaborative time from this infographic!
