Did Zoom make meetings "too easy"? - the true cost of unproductive meetings
Mar 12
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Let me start this off with a few statistics (Otter.ai):
Large companies are losing up to $100M due to unproductive meetings
Workers believe ~30% of all meetings are unproductive
70% of workers multi-task during these unproductive meetings
There is a currently a huge inefficiency in the corporate world that is being overlooked by even the sharpest cost-cutters and productivity managers: unproductive meetings.
In the past few years alone, business professionals all around the world have experienced a drastic increase in the frequency of meetings. But unlike other societal phenomena, which are too complex for us to fully understand, we can clearly point a finger at the culprit of this specific issue: the explosion in popularity of Zoom and other video conference (V.C.) tools.
These V.C tools have fundamentally changed the way companies "do meetings"; and much of it for the better. Physical meetings are time consuming and require a lot of prep to make happen. And even video conferences before this new generation of V.C software were cumbersome; needing IT personnel to simply set up a meeting and technical difficulties were the norm, not the exception.
But alongside these upsides of perceived efficiency and flexibility, we must also consider the potential downsides of these useful V.C. tools. As with any new technology, there are always unintended consequences that are not obvious at the outset.
Did tools like Zoom make meetings "too convenient"?
Did the ease of setting up, inviting and hosting a meeting make meetings a commodity; thus ridding of its value and overloading ourselves with unproductive ones?
One can argue that when meetings used to be more consequential, as in you had to book a psychical space and actually gather people into that room at a certain time, hosts really made sure that it was important enough to justify the invitation.
But with these easy-to-use V.C tools, organizing a meeting that can replicate 80% of the experience of an IRL meeting is now just mouse clicks away. Everything takes place online, meaning that the host no longer had to consider everyone's schedule to justify the call to a meeting. Just create the invitation and send it out to as many people as you think should maybe be there.
"People just go to meetings to talk about the other meetings" is a joke I've heard before, but it's really starting to not sound like one anymore. The numbers and sentiments are all pointing to the fact that everyone in the corporate world is overwhelmed by the sheer amount of meetings; most of them not productive.
As someone who has been thinking a lot about meeting productivity recently, I've identified two actionable ideas to combat the further spread of unproductive meetings.
1 - When in doubt, go with less
This is the most obvious but overlooked aspect of reducing wasted meeting hours. Simply host less meetings, shorter meetings, and invite less people.
Here are some good questions to ask yourself when you're getting ready to setup a meeting:
Can this discussion be resolved over email/messages?
Who are the essential people that need to be there?
What is the shortest time that we can cover the topic in? and most importantly:
Would I still invite these people for this long if the meeting was to be held in person?
This is a tactic backed by researchers, such as Dr. Steven Rogelberg at UNC, who are studying the effects of unproductive meetings on worker productivity and health.
Rogelberg actually suggests to schedule a meeting for a bit shorter than you think it will take to resolve the discussion. This is explained by a phenomenon called the Parkinson's law which states that "work will take up as much time is allocated to it". Meaning that a meeting that is scheduled for 60 minutes will take 60 minutes to come to a conclusion. So in other words, if you book that same meeting for 50 minutes, it will still come to a conclusion, just faster!
To fight against the urge to click through your entire team when gathering a meeting, thinking like a minimalist will go a long way in reducing wasted hours in meetings. Remember, there is a real, tangible cost in inviting sometime to a meeting; Every minute that they are not engaged in the meeting is time and money going to waste because of your decision.
2 - Meetings as a content
If you think about it, a video conference, for many people, is just a live stream that they are watching on their computer with minimum participation. And in the world of Youtube-s and Netflix-s, people's expectations for any sort of video content is so high, and in comparison, 99% of corporate meetings are a grossly underproduced, low quality content. No wonder why there is a problem of attention and engagement in meetings.
Managers and meeting hosts need to start treating their meetings as a content, where you are responsible of engaging and even entertaining your audiences (participants) in order to achieve the desired outcome of the meeting.
And there are two aspects to a high-quality meeting.
The first factor is the content itself. As the host, you are in charge of the talking points, flow of the meeting, as well as time management. The most important thing to prepare as the host is a good agenda; with questions to be answered and goals for the meeting. Then, as the meeting unfolds, you must keep referring back to the agenda whenever people start drifting off-topic. And simultaneously, as the time keeper, you need to decide whether to let someone keep talking or cut them off to move onto the next point. And you're right, this is not at a simple task to ask from anyone; there are people whose jobs are solely being a good host/moderator. So you need a little help with getting your point across; maybe some sort of tool to do so. And this is where the seconds aspect comes in- the visuals.
Right now, your zoom video probably looks something like this:
You could be talking eloquently about the most interesting subject but still not have the attention of the your audiences. Why? Well remember, on Zoom, what you say is only half of the equation, the other half being what they see.
Using live graphics is the most effective way to upgrade the production quality of a Zoom call; And in the case of meetings, using graphics such as a meeting agenda or a progress timer would be super helpful, right?
And there are several ways to get these kinds of graphics into your Zoom calls. But the matter of fact is most of them require either an AV professional's help and/or a professional external software to do so. And we understand that this is not ideal or even plausible for most people whose goal is to host better meetings, not to become the next big Twitch streamer.
This is the very reason why we, a broadcast graphics software company, created SPX Graphics for Zoom. It's a simple graphics controller that opens as a sidebar right inside of Zoom, where you can control all kinds of dynamic graphics such as branded nametags, meeting agendas, meeting timer, image carousels, and much more; all with just a click of a button.
This give you all of the benefits of a visual upgrade to your video but without the need of AV support or complex graphics workflow. You can read more about the app and try it for free here.
My wish is for everyone whose workday is currently dominated by meetings is to take these two rather simple ideas and actually put them into practice. Imagine the savings if your team is able to eliminate just a hour of unproductive meetings, whether by reducing or upgrading your meetings. Then, imagine what is possible if every team in your organization does the same; The amount of time and money that will be freed up to do more important work will be immense.
If you read this far, thank you! And please share this with someone who you think can benefit from these tips as well. Let's spread the idea of "More productive meetings" to the rest of the corporate world and make working more productive and mindful!
Sources:
The Cost of Unnecessary Meeting Attendance: Otter.ai and Dr. Steven Rogelberg
CBS
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unnecessary-meetings-cost-big-companies-100-million-annually/
The surprising science behind how to elevate your meetings - Steven Rogelberg
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