The American humorist, Dave Barry (1999) said, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’”
The business world holds many, many meetings. It is estimated that 11 million business meetings occur every day – or four billion per year - in the United States; accounting for 37% of employee time (MCI/Verizon 1998; Nunamaker et al. 1997). The Verizon/MCI study (1998) also found that most busy professionals attend over 60 meetings per month and report that they are invited to attend even more but are unable due to time constraints.
An oft-cited statistic found by the Wharton Center for Applied Research at the University of Pennsylvania and published by The Wall Street Journal reports that the average senior executive spends 23 hours each week, or 100+ hours per month in meetings (“Save Time and Money with Better Meeting Management” n.d.). All the while, senior and middle managers report that a mere 56 percent of meetings are productive and that a phone call or email could replace more than 25 percent of meetings (Koehn 2013).
All these meetings are costly! Another oft-cited report by Industry Week estimates that unproductive meeting time amounts to $37 billion in waste, annually (Sheridan 1989). One Fortune 50 company reports losses in excess of $75 million per year due to poor meetings (Nunamaker et al. 1997).
With so many meetings occurring in American business every day, they often become boring and ineffective. A study found that 91% of meeting participants admitting to daydreaming during meetings, 73% admitted to doing other work during meetings, and nearly 40% admitting that they’ve slept or dozed off during meeti...
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...ings. In addition, the meeting could facilitate a poor tone or pace before and/or after the meeting with potential consequences for weeks; meaning that if an organization holds an inappropriate meeting first thing Tuesday morning, a poor tone and pace is set leading up to and after the meeting for those who attend. This poor tone and pace could continue throughout the rest of the day or more – something that is detrimental to an industry as human-productivity-dependent as construction.
Due to the nature of regularly scheduled meetings, the results of this study could have a large impact. The high frequency of construction meetings means that there is a potential for even small changes to create grand improvements.
It is hypothesized that some meetings are inappropriate and could be eliminated altogether or at the very least that they can occur much less frequently.
the challenge is to find a way to get into the meeting, as opposed to pointlessly sitting
Adler, Ronald B., and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst. Communicating at Work. New York: McGraw Hill, 1996.
Teleconferencing most of the meetings: In high risk and magnitude projects like the space shuttle program, most of the important decision makers and workers such as the project managers and the contractors should be co-located. However, most of the meetings were virtual and there was poor communication between the personnel.
Difficult conversations happens every day in the workplace, it may involve a supervisor and staff communicating about low productive and work performance delivering feedback; or why this staff arrives late to work every morning. Difficult conversations can also include teammates not being able to work together on a project when the deadline is fast approaching. According to Engels, (2007a) No one relishes an uncomfortable conversation. (p.50) Nevertheless, “Executing important but unsettling conversations can be surprisingly effective when the sender follow clear guidelines. (p.50)
meeting that I attended. There were only three women present, so the female presence in the room was not as great as I would have liked. There was one table in the room and about 12 chairs around it. Of the ten people there (not including myself) eight sat around the table, with the other two sitting on couches that were around the perimeter of the room. There was a wide variation in age of the members, with the youngest probably in his mid-20's, and the oldest probably in her 60's.
As an employee, I now understand that the person who talks all day in the cubicle next to me is an extrovert who is as revitalized by being around others as I am by being secluded. I also know that just because someone is not speaking up in a meeting does not mean that they necessarily agree with the ideas that are being presented, as they may just be uncomfortable sharing their views. Well put
Environmental components can greatly influence the outcome of communication. For this reason, clever leaders take careful consideration when it comes to office l...
miscommunication, which in ways could cause loss of work time, due to doing the wrong job.
McLean, S (2010). Developing business presentations. In Business Communication for Success (pp. 371-414). Retrieved from
Weekly, biweekly, or even monthly scheduled team meetings provide many benefits to both managers and employees. For example, regularly scheduled meetings produce higher productivity due to fewer interruptions between meetings (Theisen, n.d.). They also allow risks and concerns to be raised to both the team and the managers. In Ben Williams’ case, he sees a pattern occur when the staff are not all on the same page when it comes to projects. Perhaps this is because Williams doesn’t believe in meetings being effective and only communicates to the staff when a change is needed. By introducing regularly scheduled meetings, William can better communicate what is currently going on in the firm as well as any changes that are taking place. His staff can voice issues and raise concerns during this time to create better organization in their teams and improve
Messmer, M. (2002). Conducting effective meetings. The National Public Accountant, , 15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/232339370?accountid=14543
This paper explores what it takes to be a construction manager and the responsibilities of being a construction manager and the skills that a construction manager should have. It also explores what good construction managers do to have success on their construction projects and the steps that a construction manager must follow to end a project and meet their deadlines at the same
Communicating with anyone in the world continues to get more efficient every single day. Technology has made communicating faster and in better quality. Business meetings can now be held with people anywhere in the world, at any time during the day, over a video call. Business people are also using email so much more than they are the telephone because of the efficiency. People do not answer a phone call when they do not know the number that is calling them. People will answer an email much faster than calling back a person who has left a voicemail for them.
...g in outside activities, making friends, and even participating in relationships. Often companies will even discontinue their business meetings and will participate in a video conference, for example two businesses will meet to discuss the purchase of a product. In essence this will take away the personal time and could rush a purchase, and cause the company to deny a deal.