Episode 56

Too Many Meetings

Patience and Brian Jones discuss the issue of “too many meetings” in a firm or workplace setting. They emphasize the need to establish a balance in creating meetings that do not overburden the schedule or diminish work morale. They point out that excessive meetings can lead to a culture that inadvertently necessitates meetings for every scenario, including follow-up meetings and recapping meetings, which may consume employees’ entire workday. They advise firm leaders to calculate the financial cost of each meeting. This includes both the lost revenue due to the meeting time and the potential opportunity costs of work not done due to the meeting.

 

Highlights

  • How to manage and reduce an overwhelming amount of scheduled meetings
  • The negative impacts of meeting culture, such as affecting productivity and causing burnouts
  • How to carefully select important meetings
  • Criticism on default meeting time-frames and the negative impacts of unnecessarily long meetings
  • The importance of an agenda in a meeting, and tips to keep meetings productive and short
  • Respecting agreed meeting time and avoiding running over the scheduled time
  • Advice on auditing the calendar for meetings and reflecting on their importance

Episode Resources
Connect with Brian Jones and Patience Jones

February 14, 2024

Too Many Meetings | As Built Podcast Ep. 56.