The Case for Masterful Meetings
By Michael Wilkinson, CMF
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies, Inc.
Let me ask you three questions.
1. How much of your time each week is wasted in useless, unnecessary meetings, or meetings that don’t stay focused, or meetings that don’t end with a result that was worth the time invested?
2. How many other people in your organization are having your same experience and if we added up all the wasted time in a week what would you estimate that it amounts to? Maybe 2, 3, 4 hours per person times 100 people?
3. Would it be helpful if there were a transformation of the way people in your organization viewed and executed meetings such that:
- Everyone had the same vision of what a Masterful Meeting looks like;
- People knew in order to call a meeting that they had to announce the purpose and outcomes in advance;
- Meetings were required to stay on track and focused on creating the desired outcomes; and
- People were encouraged to exercise their Meeting Rights to help ensure that Masterful Meetings became the norm and not the exception?
For an organization of just 20 people who spend an average of 13 hours a week in meetings – some spending more time, some spending less, just a 15% increase in the productivity of meetings is the equivalent to adding an entire person to your team!
- But in addition, better meetings can mean better decisions. The benefit of one major decision made the right way due to Masterful Meetings can far exceed the quarter of a million dollar benefit from time savings.
- Masterful Meetings also can be the start of an organizational transformation that focuses your team on increasing productivity and achieving better outcomes through out the business.
The next time you are sitting through a bad meeting, think about how much could be saved if your people understand and exercised Masterful Meetings.
Interested in learning more meeting techniques? Check out our course, Masterful Meetings.
Michael Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Leadership Strategies – The Facilitation Company, and a much sought after trainer, facilitator and speaker. He is a Certified Master Facilitator and a Certified Professional Facilitator. As a past president of the Southeast Association of Facilitators and a board member of the National Institute of Facilitation, Michael is a national leader in the facilitation industry. You can get more tips from either of Michael’s books, The Secrets of Facilitation or The Secrets to Masterful Meetings. You can receive a signed copy through our website.
