Why do we have so many meetings?

In the case of the company in the video, the question should be why do we have so many meetings that don't achieve enough? Unfortunately, the solution isn't as simple as sending managers on a training course or reading a book on how to run meetings. As a detached observer, the weaknesses are easy to spot – for those involved, however, it can be difficult to apply textbook logic. If you have back-to-back meetings, how do you find the time to prepare? Also, at crisis times when participants are protecting their own position, leaving a meeting in one piece without a long action list can feel like success. This is a symptom of a business without a clear and agreed pressure for change. In this environment, participants attend the meeting with their own agenda and priorities. Taking steps to improve the mechanics of meetings will help, but without the right business drivers in place, it is difficult to be clear about what decisions need to be taken and whether a meeting is required to achieve that. In a book called The Visual Factory (ISBN 0-915299-67-4 Productivity Press), Michel Greif studied more than 20 French and US manufacturing plants to identify best practice visual management. Although it wasn't what he expected to find, he concluded that the impact of visual management was more than a few slick noticeboards. Where visual management worked well, it was possible to assess the shopfloor reality at a glance. The shopfloor teams made day-to-day decisions and the outcome was fewer, shorter meetings through improved communication. The main lesson is that if managers delegate accountability for decisions to the lowest possible level and support that with the right systems, time is released for them to work on issues where only they can add value.