Making meetings more exciting?

 

    There was some interesting research out a few weeks ago from Epson and CEBR suggesting that the average UK office worker wastes 2 hours and 39 minutes in meetings every week.

• £26 billion: the amount lost from UK economy through time wasted in meetings in 2011
• 2 hours 39 minutes: the number of hours workers feel are wasted in meetings during an average week
• 49 minutes: the number of wasted minutes in meetings not made up for later
• 10 hours or over: the amount of time one in five senior managers and directors say they spend in meetings per week
• 11 minutes: the average amount of time it takes for people’s attention to drift in a meeting.

 

Nothing too surprising about any of this, other than perhaps how low some of them are (people concentrate in meetings for 11 minutes at a stretch – really???).

Anyway, I’ve got an article in Management Today providing some suggestions for dealing with this problem.  The last one’s my favourite!

• Dispense with chairs
• Get social
• Opting out
• Avoid technology blunders
• Water cooler culture
• Be bold with timings
• Get creative with locations
• Weapons of mass distraction
• Use professional facilitation
• Better biscuits

 

There’s a bit more detail on Management Today.

 

Picture credit: Crowne Plaza lays fresh grass carpets

Technorati Tags: Epson,CEBR,meetings,Management Today,Crowne Plaza,grass,carpets

 

• Consulting - Research - Speaking - Training - Writing
• Strategy - Talent - Engagement - Change and OD
• Contact me to create more value for your business
• jon [dot] ingham [at] strategic [dash] hcm [dot] com

.