Mattel CEO and chairman, Bryan G. Stockton, recently resigned after the company’s struggles with lower-than-expected sales and a dismal fourth quarter. Despite the holiday-shopping season, sales slid 6% to $2 billion in the final quarter of 2014 according to news sources earlier this week when Stockton announced his resignation. An American leading toy maker, the company looked to Stockton to revamp the Mattel brand after its loss in business to rivals like Lego and a shift in the young market that now favors technology – tablets and smart phones – over traditional toys by Barbie and Fisher-Price – both manufactured by Mattel.
Why did Stockton fail to revive the struggling Mattel business? Sources believe Mattel lacked innovative products going into the holiday season and that the lack of innovation was a deeper issue rooted in its culture. Based on an article by NPR, Mattel’s lack of innovative culture was partly blamed on a common – and chronic – problem plaguing many corporations: bad meetings.
The implications of bad meetings result in poor decision making, unproductive time, and a silo mentality in the workplace. When employees gather in a meeting that fails to generate shared understanding toward a purpose without collaboration and full engagement, how can the team perform at its best and innovate? Unfortunately, the cost of wasted meetings is a problem many leaders have either internally accepted or not fully realized – when it comes to the bottom line and employee culture.
Meeting facilitation training is an important soft skill beneficial for all employees, who may not recognize that they lack it. If your organization is stifled by unproductive meetings that fail to produce results when it comes to brainstorming, client meetings, strategic planning, or other types of group meetings, get trained in group facilitation or partner with a professional meeting facilitator.
