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- Adrian Shepherd is a British productivity consultant who's lived and worked in Japan for the past 24 years.
- He says that meetings can come at a cost to businesses - an estimated $37 billion a year, according to The Muse.
- Unfortunately, the time spent in meetings has only grown since 2000. Shepherd says they should be reduced as much as possible.
- Meetings should be as small as possible, and focused on discussion rather than just distributing information.
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Courtesy of Adrian Shepherd
Adrian Shepherd.
Meetings are a pet peeve of mine.
They are often one of the biggest productivity drains for many corporations. In the 20th century, with the sheer growth of the world, meetings were critical. They were the key manner in which information was distributed.
Today, we have many more options available to us. Naturally, we need meetings to ensure things stay on track, but too many companies keep them out of tradition. Studies have also shown that many companies run ineffective ones that actually hurt, rather than help, the organization.
Meetings done right will boost productivity. Let's take a look at the five biggest mistakes you may be making, and don't even know it.