Loud Thinking August 12, 2014 at 01:05PM
Three Rules for More Productive Meetings
We’re spending too much precious work time attending unproductive meetings. For most executives, meetings take up at least 20 hours every week; one meeting spawns another, and on it goes. Here are three ways to prevent meeting bloat:
Keep the invitee list to seven. The Rule of 7 states that every attendee over seven reduces the likelihood of making a good, quick, executable decision by 10%. So once you hit 16 to 17, your decision effectiveness is basically zero.
Make most meetings under an hour. Most of us schedule 60-minute meetings by default. Every additional minute generates more cost, so try blocking off shorter amounts of time that can be spent more productively. Can you get through your agenda in 30 or 45 minutes instead?
Use longer meetings sparingly. Create (and enforce) a new rule: any meetings scheduled to be 90 minutes or longer need senior approval.
Adapted from “ Yes, You Can Make Meetings More Productive” by Michael C. Mankins.
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