So on a scale of 1 ā 10, with 10 being ātheyāre my favorite part of the day/week,ā how much do you love meetings? If youāre like most people, youāre probably pretty low on that scale, believing that theyāre a waste of time and often quite annoying, especially if youāre an attendee rather than the someone who organized the meeting.
Think back to those pre-pandemic days when coordinating and accommodating everyoneās schedule for an in-person meeting was so challenging, but now we have programs like Zoom and Google Meet. They have made it possible for us to see our family and friends during the lockdown and continue doing the work we do, but they also made it possible to have many more meetings.
Iāll bet you probably have more meetings now than ever before the pandemic. Iām also going to guess that many of those meetings feel like a waste of time and completely unproductive.
As accountants, we obviously know that meetings are necessary amongst ourselves, other professionals, and our clients, but if weāre being completely honest, they arenāt always as necessary as we make them out to be. With technology making it easier to have meetings with anyone, anywhere, we have become āmeeting crazy,ā but unfortunately, this creates a lot of productivity and time management issues.
If youāre not on board with the issue of too many meetings and believe that meetings donāt affect your productivity, think again. There have been various studies and surveys done, and they paint a different picture ā in one survey, managers reported that 83% of the meetings on their calendars were unproductive, and the overall sense of U.S.-based professionals who rated meetings said they were the ānumber one office productivity killer.ā
Research has also shown that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the last 50 years, to the point that executives spend an average of at least 23 hours a week in meetings. Just so you understand the impact of this, in the 1960s (think about the era of the show āMad Menā), the average hours spent in meetings was only 10 hours a week ā thatās an increase of 130%!
And that 23-hour-a-week average has probably increased since our hybrid work situations have also increased our perceived need to connect more frequently. We have become an anxious workforce, and meetings have become our go-to in order to have some semblance of control and connection.
But Iām actually not here to bash meetings or teach you the typical things like to make sure you have an agenda, that you should start and stop on time, or that you should have only the people necessary in the meeting because you probably already know that. What I want to help you with is what to do to handle meeting overload.
I want to help you understand the reason why we hold and attend way more meetings than we should. Hopefully, youāll see that there is a better way to handle meeting overload so that you donāt have to dread the sense of fatigue that can affect your time at work and your time at home with your family.
This week Iām going to discuss the reasons why we schedule and attend too many meetings and how to handle meeting overload.
The reasons why we schedule and attend too many meetings
In the world of accounting, the name of the game is productivity and efficiency, so why would we schedule and attend so many meetings that have been proven to reduce our productivity and efficiency? Whatās the deal with having so many meetings?
Besides the cost in productivity and time not spent working on your primary job, also consider the financial cost of a meeting by multiplying the salaries of all attendees times the time spent in one meeting. As accountants, we love math, and so do the math ā itās pretty staggering.
Since I am a professional and time management coach for accountants, I think one of the most detrimental things about meetings is that they interrupt workflow and donāt allow for Focus Time, a pillar of my Balanced Accountant coaching program. When you donāt give your brain uninterrupted Focus Time, you pay the price in wasted time, less productivity, and less efficiency.
So if meetings cut into our productivity and are often not time well spent, why do we schedule and attend so many meetings? The Harvard Business Review published an article titled āThe Psychology Behind Meeting Overload,ā and they came up with the following 6 reasons why we have too many meetings:
Meeting FOMO
If youāre unfamiliar with the term āFOMO,ā it stands for Fear Of Missing Out. So when it comes to meeting overload, one of the reasons why we attend so many meetings is because weāre afraid of our colleagues judging us or forgetting about us if we arenāt in all of the meetings.
When we have meeting FOMO, weāre also afraid that if weāre not in the meeting, our opinion wonāt be heard, that things might go in the wrong direction, that weāll miss something, that we wonāt look like a team player, or that weāre not doing our job. We have so much fear of missing out that we make not attending mean something negative about us and our future.
We also equate facetime with how committed we are to our job. Itās important to understand that our lower, primitive brain makes not attending a meeting mean something horrible is going to happen to us, so just be aware of when you are having meeting FOMO, and in the next section of this episode, Iāll share some strategies for how to deal with meeting FOMO.
Selfish Urgency
This is when leaders schedule meetings whenever itās convenient for them, without necessarily considering their colleagueās needs or schedules. In my coaching experience, I would say this happens with those who have not learned the skill of managing their minds, managing their time, or havenāt worked on their emotional intelligence.
Itās often not done maliciously or even consciously. Itās just that most leaders arenāt as aware of the impact that meetings have or what they can cost a company or an accounting firm, not just in productivity, energy, and efficiency but also in money.
One company that looked at how much meetings were costing realized that the meetings of middle managers cost the organization $15 million a year. As I mentioned before, most people donāt consider the hourly rate of most employees attending those meetings and what that could add up to.
Meetings As Commitment Devices
If thereās one thing that accountants are very familiar with, itās deadlines. Besides having to deal with so many deadlines, we also assume that deadlines are a great motivator, and left to our own devices, we wouldnāt get as much done if we didnāt have so many deadlines.
While that might be true for some accountants, itās important to understand how not to confuse meetings as commitment devices. When we use meetings in this way, weāre using them to help ensure that people follow through on their promises.
The issue is that behavior science shows that an external deadline, like a meeting with your boss, can be an effective motivator, but the meeting itself is often unnecessary. The reason itās unnecessary is that people are typically reporting on how they did or didnāt achieve the agreed-upon target.
The Mere Urgency Effect
When we are super stressed (letās be honest, what accountant isnāt?), completing seemingly urgent yet unimportant tasks can make us feel better. This is known as the mere urgency effect ā scheduling and attending meetings tricks us into believing weāve accomplished something.
Even if meetings arenāt objectively as important as our other work, when weāre feeling stressed and overwhelmed, meetings can bring a welcomed relief. The mere urgency can trick us into feeling like a meeting is a productive use of our, and othersā, time.
Meetings can also become a habit, often having them at the same patterned day or time, whether theyāre necessary or not. The researchers explain that if weāve always held a certain meeting at a certain time, itās a lot easier just to keep doing that than to reevaluate whether itās actually a good idea.
Meeting Amnesia
If youāve ever seen the movie āGroundhog Day,ā where Bill Murrayās character keeps reliving the same day over and over again, youāll understand what meeting amnesia is all about. Itās when you end up in the same bad meeting over and over again because no one remembers what was discussed in the last meeting.
The need to remember the point of the last meeting, what was discussed, and the purpose of this current meeting wastes so much of everyoneās time. It leads to confusion, and do you know whatās not helpful for productivity and efficiency for accountants? A confused brain.
The more your brain tries to make sense of where you are so you can figure out how to get to where you want to be, the more exhausted it becomes. When people are confused or overwhelmed, meeting amnesia is more likely to be present and can become very depleting for everyone involved.
Pluralistic Ignorance
The final reason we schedule and attend too many meetings is because of pluralistic ignorance. This means that even though weāre all experiencing the same thing, we assume that other people donāt feel the same way we do. For example, youāre sitting in the second hour of a meeting that was only supposed to be one hour, and youāre thinking, āThis is ridiculous that itās still going on. This is a waste of my time. Why am I the only one who sees how pointless this is?ā
When that happens, youāre assuming that no one else realizes that itās ridiculous that the meeting is still going on and that itās a waste of time. Our ignorance of what others think translates to us scheduling more useless meetings.
No one is willing to speak up and say the thing that everyone is thinking.
So now that you know the six reasons we schedule and attend too many meetings ā meeting FOMO, selfish urgency, meetings as commitment devices, the Mere Urgency Effect, meeting amnesia, and pluralistic ignorance ā Iāll share some suggestions on how to handle each.
How to handle meeting overload
While you might not be dealing with all of the mentioned reasons why we schedule and attend too many meetings, I still think itās important to know how to deal with each one, just in case your situation changes in the future.
When dealing with meeting FOMO
So if you can relate to the issue with meeting FOMO, the Harvard Business Review article suggests that declining the invite and providing your input before the meeting will still allow you to feel present, useful, and visible without actually attending the meeting. They also suggest that the meeting organizer should put more thought into inviting only those employees for which the meeting is genuinely relevant.
Whether you are typically an attendee or an organizer, you might be interested to know that research has shown that the most productive employees attend fewer meetings and protect their calendars for deep work. I can tell you from my experience that the more meetings I have, the less productive I can be when I sit down to do my work.
To deal with meeting FOMO, I first ask the organizer if itās absolutely necessary that I attend and explain my reason for asking because I feel like my time might be better spent getting whatever Iām working on done. If they say the meeting isnāt mandatory, I check in with myself about why Iām saying no to attending a meeting and make sure I like my reasons.
When Dealing With Selfish Urgency
If selfish urgency is an issue, the article suggests that leaders consider the opportunity costs associated with asking their teams to attend a meeting. Whether itās the financial cost to the company or more personal costs such as lost commute time, mental energy, or the logistics for working parents that might need to get extra help.
They suggest figuring out the financial costs of the meetings and speaking to your team to find out how meetings affect them professionally and personally. If you are a leader, ensure employees know thereās no downside to being honest about what meetings are costing them and then making a more informed decision about what meetings might be costing you.
If you are an employee, you might want to mention this podcast and have them listen to it or read the show notes. They might not be aware of the problems with meeting overload.
When Dealing With Meetings As Commitment Devices
Letās face it, sometimes meetings do get people to take action to avoid being embarrassed in front of others when they have to report what they did or didnāt do. Unfortunately, this can become an ineffective way of ensuring everyone is doing their job.
One of the ways they suggest dealing with the issue of using meetings as commitment devices is to tell your team in advance that the meeting will be canceled if the deadline is met. So, in essence, you are framing the cancellation as a reward for reaching the goal.
Instead of holding a meeting to hold people accountable, find other ways that donāt waste everyoneās time, especially the ones who do get things done on time.
When Dealing With The Mere Urgency Effect
For this issue, the researchers have found it helpful to make canceling and ending meetings early the default, especially for recurring meetings. They offer that instead of asking, āDoes anyone have any updates,ā say, āUnless anyone has anything new, letās cancel, and we can all get an hour back.ā
Just for a second, imagine all the work you could get done if you were given an hour back that you thought would be spent in a meeting. Youād be amazed at what you can get done when you give others the gift of their time back.
They also suggest that if you arenāt sure if a meeting is necessary, try not having it and see what happens. Make it a regular practice in recurring meetings to ask whether you need the next one.
When Dealing With Meeting Amnesia
For this issue, what the article suggests is that you can provide a brief synopsis of the key points in a format that makes the information as accessible as possible. There is no need to make a long, drawn-out summary that wastes the time of everyone involved.
A brief synopsis lets everyone know what was said, who is expected to do what, and by when. This helps alleviate any confusion for those in attendance at the meeting and those that werenāt.
In a virtual environment, they suggest you schedule a short five-minute team debrief after key internal and external calls. With fewer opportunities to connect informally, it can be challenging to pick up on cues that someone left the Zoom call confused.
When Dealing With Pluralistic Ignorance
For this final issue, they suggest that leaders should encourage their teams to openly discuss their frustrations and offer feedback. They should also work together to regularly identify and eliminate unproductive meetings.
Of course, that might sound easier said than done, but to reduce meeting overload, leaders need to be genuinely interested in what their team members and employees have to say. They need to allow a safe space for honesty and not take it personally.
When I coach on leadership, one of the most important topics I cover is emotional adulthood versus emotional childhood ā emotional adulthood is where you take 100% responsibility for how you feel, and emotional childhood is when you blame others for how you feel. To combat pluralistic ignorance, leaders must welcome feedback and manage their emotions.
So thatās what research has discovered about why we schedule and attend so many meetings and what they suggest for dealing with each issue. Whether youāre a leader or a participant, I hope you take these issues and suggestions to heart and implement them yourself.
Summary
- As accountants, we obviously know that meetings are necessary amongst ourselves, other professionals, and our clients, but if weāre being completely honest, they arenāt always as necessary as we make them out to be.
- Research has also shown that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the last 50 years, to the point that executives spend an average of at least 23 hours a week in meetings.
- There is a better way to handle meeting overload so that you donāt have to dread the sense of fatigue that can affect your time at work and your time at home with your family.