Meeting Hygiene
We are conducting many meetings nowadays, live, hybrid, online, etc… Unfortunately, many people in corporate environments do not find them worthwhile, as they are time-consuming and ineffective. There is a strong desire to do something about it urgently and radically in many business environments. Still, all too often, the change is nothing more than a good resolution or a billboard on the walls.
An EffCo survey showed that 75% of the attendees do other things than what the meeting was meant for, and more than half regard the meetings as a sheer time-waster.
However, stopping having meetings is not an alternative. There are decisions to be made, thoughts to be exchanged, and views to be aligned with the company’s overall strategic objectives.
At EffCo, we can contribute to ensuring that meetings become more efficient, more effective, and also more enjoyable. Are all these meetings necessary? Do they have to be so long? Can’t they be done with less but the correct number of participants? Are action plans drafted, tracked, and executed?
Our approach to meeting hygiene has been very successful with our customers recently, both as part of our integrated performance improvement projects and as a stand-alone.
Like all other EffCo initiatives, the approach is bespoke. We commence with a questionnaire to assess the dominant feelings of the stakeholders regarding the meeting climate and continue with the observations of actual meetings and their participants in their natural habitat. On this basis, a unique methodology and an evaluation methodology are designed and proposed to the Management.
Some quantifiable outcomes from recent projects are a 33% decrease in time used for meetings in an international head office, a drastic drop in the number of ad-hoc meetings, and the complete eradication of meetings without a clearly defined objective and more accurate tracking and follow-up of action plans.
A few quotes from our client base:
” We now show a much greater degree of initiative and reach better decision-making faster …”
” Thanks to the EffCo method, a tremendous number of seemingly small adjustments have been made, but the impact has been immense…”
“We as a Management Team have emerged from this much more forceful and proactive, and we’re not abandoning this approach ever again …”
” No laptops or cell phones, more focused and more decisiveness …”
