Pointless meeting after pointless meeting is making us unproductive and whiny. Meetings can go on and on without a clear purpose and make for wasted hours. Executive Coach Dr. Jayne Gardner says they also harm productivity. "We get bored easily listening to other people talk. If we want our people to be creative, we must cut down on the times they have to sit down and listen to someone else talk."
She says to have the team make some rules. "Everyone is held to those rules. 1) We meet on time. We end on time 2) There's an agenda we follow 3) There's no extraneous talking. If someone talks too much there's someone appointed who says, 'Let's move on.'"
Office Burn Out - At Pandemic Level?!?
Meetings overload is also a cause of burnout. Dr. Gardner says there are good ways to have efficient times together that bring on team cohesion and actually get things done. That's when people are respected, and come to each other for help and advice - and not taking advantage of someone else's time."
She says again that purposeful well-planned meetings with set rules and time limits can accomplish a world of satisfying productivity.
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Some meetings are just a waste of time.