Do you attend too many meetings?
Business management tips Australia
In my view, there is an inverse relationship between number of meetings and increasing profit. In other words, more meetings less profit!
A lot of time can be wasted each week with so-called business meetings. I think meetings that don’t have a direct link to key financial objectives are useless. They serve little purpose other than making participants feel busy and included.
It has been my observation that universities and public service organisations thrive on them. Quite often an organisation’s entire decision making system can be based in a system of meetings.
Even though these organisations have to operate inside budgets and pay their way, no individual’s income is directly affected by the meeting outcome. The only purpose seems to be one of accountability and equity. That is, everyone knowing what’s happening; everyone having their say and keeping as many people as possible happy.
In the real world, a meeting where the underlying purpose is not somehow profit-driven is unproductive. No innovative and profit-oriented business in the private sector can stand too many meetings. In fact, most meetings tend to actively stifle innovation and therefore profit. The larger the group, the less likely is change. It called the comfort zone. It is a worrying trend that this tends to happen when small organisations grow larger.
The only worthwhile business meeting is one where the income of one or both participants depends directly on the outcome. Anything else is pure and unadulterated shooting the breeze and communication alternatives should be considered.
It can be a very costly mistake to assume what customers want. The smart strategy is to first find out what the needs are and then to set about finding a solution to satisfy it. It is easy to fall into the trap of being a ‘supply pusher’, where you peddle what you have available to sell instead of responding to what customers actually want.