or many, “meetings” have gained a negative reputation. They’re often seen as a huge source of waste of time, a distraction from getting real work done. In this article, we’ll delve into the reasons behind this.
First of all, the meeting experience you face in your particular job environment will have a huge effect on how you experience meetings.
Top reasons leading to excessive and dysfunctional meetings
- Lack of trust — When there is a lack of trust among team members and stakeholders, it can lead to excessive meetings as a way to micromanage or ensure everyone is on track.
- Lack of great processes — If the existing processes do not support the work being performed in an efficient manner, additional meetings than necessary will be used as a workaround.
- Lack of clarity — If strategy, targets, decisions, or general important information is not in place or not sufficiently communicated, meetings are needed to clarify them.
- Analysis paralysis — In a culture of over-analyzing decisions, a need for constant validation and consensus lead also to many meetings.
- Management by committee — When decision-making is spread across multiple individuals or teams, it can result in a higher number of meetings to gather input and reach a consensus.
- Bad Meeting culture — Lack of ownership to question meetings, attendees, meeting purpose, agenda, etc., can lead to unnecessary meetings with too many participants and insufficient results.
These are obviously bad reasons to run meetings. Instead, the root causes should be solved.
Still, there are lots of valid reasons why team members, stakeholders, or colleagues should come together at the same time for a common purpose (=Meeting).