We have to stop meeting like this
Article Date: Jul 26 2007Workers in the UK attend almost eight face-to-face meetings per month, according to recent research. Bert van der Zwan of web conferencing company WebEx argues that much of this time could be better spent.
Meetings are vital for business in a huge number of ways: from establishing rapport and forging new partnerships to motivating staff and discussing new ideas. But are workers in the UK facing meeting overload?
Much of modern thinking on the importance of face-to-face interaction comes from Albert Mehrabian, whose research in the 1960s showed that 55 per cent of the meaning of what we say is communicated by facial expression and body language.
Sometimes, then, a meeting is vital to ensure that we express exactly what we mean. But not every discussion requires that level of contact. A survey we conducted earlier this year revealed that employees think 37 per cent of the meetings they attend do not need to be conducted face-to-face.
When you factor in research from the London School of Economics demonstrating that overall UK productivity is lower than that of industrial rivals such as France, Germany and the US, perhaps it is time we re-evaluated just how many meetings we attend.
Of the people we surveyed earlier this year, 28 per cent said that reducing their number of face-to-face meetings would improve overall productivity at work, with a further 21 per cent saying they would feel less stressed. Clearly these employees would be more effective and happier if they could cut out unnecessary meetings. The costs and environmental impact of travel, particularly by air, can also no longer be ignored.
Finding a happy medium
But how can we reduce the number of meetings without damaging relationships or missing out on opportunities? Firstly, companies must identify those meetings that could take place just as effectively on the phone, or even in a series of emails. By switching these meetings to a purely vocal or written dialogue employees can save both time and travel costs.
In many cases though, a degree of collaboration is required that email or phone conversations can’t provide. Imagine three colleagues based in separate offices but working on the same presentation. Meeting in person would mean time-consuming travelling, while working via email could take a lot of time too, as anyone who has wrestled with multiple tracked changes on a document will attest.
The answer in situations like these might be to take advantage of the communications technology enabled by the internet. These colleagues, no matter where they are located, can jump into a web conference or online meeting, share the presentation between them, and make changes in real time. With the aid of webcams, they can even read each other’s facial expressions.
Face-to-face meetings will always have their place in business. We are social animals, so getting out of the office to meet people will always be an attractive proposition. But in an increasingly competitive world, the costs of business travel and external meetings can outweigh the benefits they bring.
I for one have seen enough reports decrying employee productivity in the UK - and reconsidering the burden of excessive meetings can be one step to addressing the problem. Through careful selection of which meetings can be replaced with alternatives, we may find we can achieve a lot more.
