Free Meeting Planning Tutorial

Adding up the Cost of Meetings
Most people will have heard the story of the American corporate president who had the hourly salaries of his board members entered into an electronic display, which updated the cost of each meeting as it progressed. He would periodically turn to the display and ask the meeting participants if they had justified the accumulated cost. No doubt this was an effective way of keeping minds focused.

However, simple salary based calculations take no account of the other costs associated with a meeting. Here are some examples:

Cost of Overruns
Every meeting has associated with it a time and a cost – but how many half hour meetings actually last 30 minutes? Far more overrun than finish early, so even quantifying the time of the meeting isn't that easy.

Preparation & Follow Up
You would normally expect to spend some time ahead of a meeting - preparing for it. You would also spend some time following the meeting in pursuing tasks that have arisen from it. Typically, a meeting could occupy three to five times the scheduled duration of the meeting.

Travel costs
People often travel quite long distances in order to attend meetings and not only must this cost be factored in, but also an appropriate allowance for any non-productive time.

Overhead and Administration costs
This category includes the fixed costs of the meeting venue, whether it is in-house or external, as well as the cost of hiring any presentation equipment that may be required. It will include all of the communication and production costs associated with the meeting - items such as stationery, printing, telecommunications and postage. If the meeting uses videoconferencing, then this can be quite a significant cost.

Opportunity costs
Whilst people are in meetings they are not able to carry out their normal duties. For example, a sales meeting may take a number of key sales staff off the road for a day. Sales opportunities will inevitably be missed and this needs to be considered when estimating the true cost of the meeting?

Reducing the Number of Meetings You Attend
How often have you agreed to attend a meeting, only to find out that there was nothing to it that couldn't have been dealt with via email or the telephone?
How many meetings have you attended where your presence was entirely superfluous?
What about those meetings where the other party's agenda meant that you were put on the spot, and you wished you hadn't attended?

Learning to say no to unnecessary meetings will be an important part of your meetings strategy. It is only by declining inappropriate, or poorly planned, meetings that you will find the time to prepare for and attend those that are of real value.

If you start to take responsibility for every meeting, whether you are chairing it or just attending, you will soon find that you are going to fewer and better meetings. You will become more specific about what it is that you want to accomplish and you'll be more focused on achieving a positive outcome.

If you decide that there are some meetings that you would either like to avoid or would like to see restructured, then there are a variety of approaches that you can adopt. Foe example:

Question the need for your attendance
This is easier to do if the meeting leader is your subordinate or a peer, rather than your boss. Where you wish to extricate yourself from a meeting called by your boss a good approach can be to couch your request in terms of an opportunity cost. For example, “Two other people from my section are already attending, so I think it would be a better use of my time to complete the plan for the new project, rather than attend this meeting”. This couches your request in terms of an opportunity to complete another urgent task. Always make these requests from the team player perspective and stress the benefits, which should be in the best interests of your boss.

Ask for clarification of the objective
If you ask the leader of a forthcoming meeting to clarify the meeting objective, this will encourage them to re-evaluate the best way that this might be achieved. You could also ask about other aspects of the proposed meeting: are the planned attendees the best group, is the timing right and is all relevant information available?

Identify the deficiencies
If your main objection to a forthcoming meeting is that one or more aspects of it are missing or poorly planned, you should communicate this to the meeting leader. This is best done in a constructive working environment, where these comments are unlikely to cause insult or confusion. This strategy works well because it not only affects the meeting in question, but should result in better planned meetings in the future.

Try making your contribution on the telephone
Calling the meeting leader to make your contribution ahead of the meeting may preclude the need for you to attend it. You may wish to follow this up with a written contribution that the leader can table on the day. This approach is can prove very useful if your involvement is superficial, for example if you are needed for your technical opinion in a fairly narrow area.

Simply be unavailable
In some cases you will have other commitments that mean you cannot attend a meeting. You may choose to use this as a valid excuse for skipping a meeting. You may even distance yourself from the message by asking a secretary or colleague to communicate this on your behalf.

Deciding which meetings to attend, or influence in some way, is best done in a considered and direct way. It is in everyone's best interest to attend effective and well-structured meetings. Remember, your time is your responsibility, if you decide that you should not attend a meeting, then take action to avoid it.