The corporate world’s obsession with meetings has gone too far, it’s time to imagine another way, says Simon Neville
I hate meetings and in my previous life as a journalist, I rarely had to have them. But now that I’m immersed in the corporate world, I’ve discovered meetings are like crude oil – we must wean ourselves off it while being unable to fathom a world without it.
I even discovered pre-meetings and post-meetings – where I typically ask another colleague what the hell was just agreed.
Strangely, meetings always manage to last the exact length allotted and the handful where I’ve wrapped up early because we’ve achieved all we needed have been met with nervous giggles – perhaps because dragging them out to the full hour will look better on a timesheet.
But, genuinely, what is the point of so many meetings?
How can senior leaders ever see their business in operation if they are constantly sat in meetings? How can they grasp the needs of their colleagues? How can they bring the creativity that all the get-back-to-the-office ideologues claim is missing when working from home? And how can they respond to emails if stuck in meetings all day?
One solution to this final issue presented itself to me on Monday during a weekly 15-minute internal company-wide meeting I host to run through the news agenda.
Due to the short time, I try to be fast-paced and pepper it with the occasional opinion. But this week, just four minutes into me discussing how the media might handle the Bank of England interest rate decision, I got a ping.
A few moments later, my computer starts pinging again. And again. And again. Throwing over to my colleague to discuss the political topics of the week, I find a stream of messages on a work chat group I’m in – from people who are sat in the meeting I’m hosting.
Just 10 minutes in, I counted messages and emails from at least five people who I could see in the meeting, about topics that had nothing to do with what I was discussing and none of which were time-sensitive either.
As I wrapped up, I addressed it and said: “I really hope these meetings aren’t boring. I try to keep them interesting. But, I’ve already had five people I know are on this call sending messages whilst I’ve been speaking. I’d really appreciate it if, for the whole 15 minutes, people could just listen to what I’m saying.”
Some started laughing. Others looked a bit shocked. A few sent me messages afterwards praising me for calling it out. One told me it was fine because they are an excellent multi-tasker.
But the bigger issue at play here is – if we keep holding endless meetings, how can we get through the rest of our work? How can we ever be fully engaged with what’s in front of us? And how can we best support our clients?
I’m sure my colleagues weren’t trying to be rude and their behaviour was a symptom, not a cause. Lots of offices have staff who feel overworked and under pressure to multitask whenever they can.
But, either way, there must be a better way to operate. There must be a way to find a solution and when we can finally step away from the obsession with meetings, we might actually find an answer.