"Couldn't this meeting have been covered in an EMAIL?!?"

Meetings crowded with people and topics that go on too long are a major cause of worker frustration. Workplace expert Mark Fenner gives an example: "In a meeting, a problem will come up. It involves just a couple of people. But they will go off 'into the weeds' trying to solve the problem with everyone else rolling their eyes and sighing!" Organizational experts say the onslaught of meetings is exhausting workers and decreasing productivity.

Fenner's advice:" Companies should avoid long report-out kind of meetings that staff could get in an email or PowerPoint or read from a presentation deck!" Other groups say to just make a call to only an affected few of your staff to discuss one or two items.

Many studies have shown that with fewer meetings, productivity rises. So does employee morale. Workers are actually leaving companies because they feel sabotaged by too many time-wasting meetings! Fenner profiles a good managers meeting. They keep meetings short, they keep them concise and they keep them actionable.

The best uses of a meeting are:
Discuss
Debate
Solve problems
Make decisions

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