Too Many Meetings?

In one of CNN's recent unscientific daily polls, people were asked to comment on whether where they work has too many meetings. Fifty-five percent of respondents said "yes." The results of this survey are not a surprise. In all my years in the work force, I have yet to hear any one say they do not go to enough meetings or that they wish they could attend more. If anything, a constant refrain I hear is the complaint that people say they do not have enough time to actually do their job because too much of their days are taken up by attending meetings. I have been known to make that same comment myself, too.

Lately, however, my opinion about meetings has changed. Though I will be the first to admit that many are poorly run and are allowed to run-on far too long, I am no longer of a mind they are a waste of time or are somehow separate from work employees have to do. Meetings represent an important element in the communication process that all employees need to follow as they strive to meet their own responsibilities. They are a time when individuals come together to discuss and devise strategies for successfully dealing with issues of mutual concern. This is no small thing. More often than not, work-related challenges are best confronted by more than one person because most of the time these challenges and their proposed solutions affect more than one person.

Communication is a team sport and meetings represent that. It provides individuals with an opportunity to move beyond themselves and participate in an effort to serve a greater good. It represents a valuable opportunity for workers to shift from "I" to "we." The challenge for those running the meetings is to ensure they are conducted in an efficient and respectful manner. Collaboration is important, yet so, too, is giving people the chance to be heard in a forum where others listen.