Unproductive business meetings not only waste time, they are also costly for a company.
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This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.
Meetings are a necessary evil in business life. They are essential to reach agreements with the different parts of a company, but if they are not carried out correctly they can cause great losses of time .
There are times when the description of the objective of the meeting is confusing, there is no agenda, minutes of a previous meeting to follow up on the decisions reached – if there were any – and half of the people called do not know why they are there.
These meetings quickly “break down” to see various issues that lead nowhere or to resolve issues that have not been able to vent in other forums. There is no shortage of the assistant who decides to take advantage of his time with his smartphone , while others chat with each other.
These are the least productive meetings in the world.
According to Industry Week , 15 percent of total work time is wasted in meetings and that percentage rises to 40 percent when it comes to senior executives. This translates to two days a week dedicated only to meeting with three or more coworkers.
What’s more, in the United States alone, these unnecessary meetings result in losses of $ 37 billion in salary costs.
Jabra firm offers some tips to make business meetings more productive:
1. Think it over before inviting everyone
Before organizing a meeting ask yourself: Is it essential to have a meeting? Maybe you can solve the pending issues with a couple of calls.
You should also think about who are the people who must necessarily attend the meeting because their presence is vital to address the problem in question.
2. Establish a reason
It is essential that you indicate why the participants should attend the meeting and what you hope to achieve. Don’t forget to offer attendees the option of not attending if they believe their presence cannot contribute in a meaningful way to the purpose of the meeting.
3. Be thorough with the details
The joints must be correct:
-Keep a clear agenda for the meeting.
-If necessary, send reading materials in advance.
-Set a start time and a maximum end time for the meeting.
-Avoid falling into points not established in the agenda.
-Raise a minute of the agreed points.
Do you have any other tips to make job meetings more profitable?