Let me ask you three questions:
1. How much of your time each week is wasted in useless, unnecessary meetings, or meetings that don’t stay focused, or meetings that don’t end with a result that was worth the time invested?
2. How many other people in your organization are having your same experience, and if we added up all the wasted time in a week, what would you estimate that it amounts to? Maybe 2, 3, 4 hours per person times 100 people?
3. Would it be helpful if there was a transformation of the way people in your organization viewed and executed meetings so that the following occurred?
- Everyone had the same vision of what a masterful meeting looks like;
- People knew in order to call a meeting that they had to announce the purpose and outcomes in advance;
- Meetings were required to stay on track and focused on creating the desired outcomes; and
- People were encouraged to exercise their “Meeting Rights” to help ensure that masterful meetings became the norm and not the exception?
For an organization of just 20 people who spend an average of 13 hours a week in meetings – some spending more time, some spending less, just a 15% increase in the productivity of meetings is the equivalent to adding an entire person to your team!
(See below for *Case Calculation)
- But, in addition, better meetings can mean better decisions. The benefit of one major decision made the right way due to masterful meetings can far exceed the quarter of a million dollar benefit from time savings.
- Masterful meetings also can be the start of an organizational transformation that focuses your team on increasing productivity and achieving better outcomes throughout the business.
The next time you are sitting through a bad meeting, think about how much could be saved if your people understand and exercised true masterful meetings.
*Case Calculation
For an organization of 100 people who spend an average of 13 hours a week in meetings with an average annual “loaded” compensation (i.e., including benefits and other items) of $80,000, a 15% increase in the productivity of meetings would yield over a quarter of a million dollars in time each year that could spent in more productive ways. More to the point, this type of productivity increase would be equivalent to adding 5 productive people to your staff!
- $80,000 in loaded compensation/year divided by 2080 hours/year = $38.46/hour
- 15% savings on 13 hours/week per person = 1.95 hours/week per person saved
- $38.46/hour * 1.95 hours/week per person * 52 weeks/year = $3900 annual savings/person
- $3900 annual savings/person * 100 people = $390,000 in total annual savings
- $390,000 annual savings divided by $80,000 per person = 4.9 additional people
Interested in getting more tools and techniques for leading masterful meetings?
Check out our Facilitating Masterful Meetings course!
About the Author
Michael Wilkinson is the trailblazing Founder of Leadership Strategies, renowned as the foremost provider of professional facilitators and facilitation training in the US. As a Certified Master Facilitator and a Certified Professional Facilitator, Michael’s expertise is in high demand as a trainer, facilitator, and keynote speaker. With a track record of leadership in the facilitation industry, including roles as past president of the Southeast Association of Facilitators, creator of the FindaFacilitator.com database, and founding board member of the International Institute of Facilitation, Michael is a leader in the industry. Dive deeper into his wealth of knowledge through his acclaimed books, including The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy, The Secrets of Facilitation, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and CLICK: The Virtual Meetings Book.