A regular purge of calendars is one suggestion for reducing meeting overload
‘Could this not have been an email?’ Is probably a common question in many workplaces, especially with many people working remotely, and research shows that meetings are having a big impact on productivity.
Statistics from Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report show many are carrying ‘digital debt’ – an inflow of data, emails and notifications outpacing our ability to process it all.
In fact, 68% of people say they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday, according to figures, with the number one obstacle to productivity being inefficient meetings.
“The data shows a clear need to make meetings better,” the report clearly outlines.
So, how do we f
ix this? HRD spoke with Dr Will Felps (pictured right), Associate Professor in the school of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School, who noted the key could be using artificial intelligence (AI).
“Many people may prefer writing over talking and AI can be a fantastic way of making communication more clear and polite. So, when you’re looking at whether something should be a meeting or not – AI could take everything you want to say and pack it into a well written, thought-provoking email or notification, not a 30-minute meeting that people don’t need.”
“We see a lot of focus away from emails and towards meetings in the past because, sometimes, you might read something and interpret it wrong. But with AI and thinks like emojis, people can have more productive, asynchronous conversations,” he added.
This will reduce the need for managers, for example, to explain something ‘better over a call’ as generative AI takes away a lot of the heavy lifting.
Felps highlighted the reason for so many unproductive meetings being engrained in workplace culture – especially because of remote work.
“Tools we use when working from home has made it easier than ever to see everyone’s calendars and schedules – so it makes it harder to decline meetings when they come in. The barriers to meetings are now so much lower, it’s just the thing you do now. It's an epidemic," he said.
On top of this, many managers and employees have a dysfunctional relationship with meetings.
“A lot of people overvalue them and with a lot of managers being extroverts, you can imagine they actually enjoy meetings. Attendees also tend to over-accept when a meeting invite hits their inbox.”
It was outlined the reason for this comes down to not wanting to miss out. “People want to be seen, they want to signal commitment – they worry about missing out on an important piece of information,” Felps said.
Re-occurring meetings were also shown to be an issue, as nobody questions their relevance – as it becomes a part of regular corporate routine.
To tackle this, it is recommended managers look to streamline their operations and reduce the number of potential meetings to the necessary few.
“A regular practice of purging your calendar can be a massive help. Getting rid of meetings for the sake of meetings can save people a lot of time for your employees to actually do their job, instead of joining in on conversations that have no real substance," Felps said.
With any meetings remaining, there are strict guardrails in place to keep conversations on track and succinct.
“A lot of times, meetings have no real agenda. Forcing people to have a goal and a question you want to answer keeps meetings productive and less frequent," he said.
“With this in mind, giving employees the power to decline is also massively important. If you make it your workers’ responsibility to productively manager their time, they can decide if the meeting is worth their while.”
It’s this empowerment, Felps said that creates a more productive and engaged relationship between manager and worker.
