We've all been there. A stiflingly hot room. A colleague who loves the sound of their own voice. The flashing red alert of a pressing deadline going off in your head. Your stress levels are rising, and you know that when you walk out of here, your afternoon is going to involve an imitation of the metaphorical headless chicken, and alarming quantities of caffeine. You are avoiding catching your colleagues' eyes. You know very well what they're thinking. You can tell by the way they bow their heads in silent despair every time the discussion goes off at another tangent.
The mercury climbs. You watch an irate and noisy fly banging its head repeatedly against the window. You know just how he feels. You can't help wondering whether this particular meeting is the best use of your working day. Or indeed, anybody else's, either. Have you contributed anything that couldn't have been shared in an email? Have you learned anything that couldn't have been shared in a phone call? Has a decision been reached, or has the can just been kicked down the road for another day?
A recent article about how to improve your meetings, and the etiquette around them, has got us thinking. Why do we all depend so heavily on meetings as part of our workplace culture? Are in-person meetings the best use of our limited time in the office, in the new, hybrid world? Could we work more efficiently by sharing information in better ways?
It's really interesting that the need for team meetings is sometimes floated as a reason why people need to commute into the office or need to be working on particular days. It's sometimes used to argue against part time working, or the 4 day working week as standard. But research shows that these working patterns can stimulate economic growth, increase productivity and lead to greater employee engagement, as well as improving the work-life balance of employees. Do the benefits that flexible working brings - to organisations and individuals - now outweigh the benefit of numerous meetings in the modern world? Perhaps it's time for us to stop defaulting to the team meeting model at every stage of a project, remove this obstacle to part time or remote working, and jump with both feet into a more streamlined, people-friendly structure. After all, if you're only in the office for a few days each week, wouldn't that time be better spent building individual working relationships and meeting clients face to face? If your team wants to share information, wouldn't it be sensible to do that in an email, requiring far fewer man-hours overall? If an outdated meeting habit is acting as a brake on flex, then perhaps it's time to slim down your meeting schedule to those that are really needed!
If you're feeling a bit meeting-weary, or that you're stuck in a rut, then perhaps it's time to consider a new role. Please do contact us! We are lucky enough to work with a wide range of innovative and flexible organisations, who value their people and are really invested in making sure that they work smartly. We - and they - would love to hear from you!