Was your last meeting, time well spent?

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back". Harvey Mackay

We spend a lot of time in meetings, at work and even at home. Studies show that managers in the USA spend an average 23 hours per week and up to 80% of their core business hours in meetings.

Alarmingly as many as half of all meetings are rated as “poor” by attendees and bad meetings come at a big cost! Meetings cost an organization 7-15% of the total employee salary budget (estimation from Michael Doyle: How to make meetings work."(1993)). The consequences of a dysfunctional meeting culture impact operational effectiveness, productivity, employee satisfaction and morale. (Rogelberg et. al.: (Employee Satisfaction With Meetings: A Contemporary Facet of Job Satisfaction 2010). This is especially true in organizations that meet often.

Does this sound familiar? Do the meetings you participate in make you frustrated and take time away from doing other important tasks? The Covid-19 move to virtual meetings will increase the temptation to multi-task and become distracted during on-line meetings. In this GetFocused eBook, we will share some proven ideas and techniques on how to create healthier meeting habits that apply to highly focused and efficient meetings, both in-person and virtually.

Why are focused meetings important?

Meetings are powerful tools for organisations to be effective and efficient, but like many tools in our world designed to make our lives easier, meetings have become a time-sucking monster.

• Have you ever been in a meeting and have had no idea what the meeting was about?

• Have you left a meeting with no clear indication of what you need to do next?

• Have you been in a meeting and thought that not all the key players were present?

• Have you had a very busy day when you have not actually achieved anything because you were in back-to-back meetings?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions, The 7 Habits of Highly Focused Meetings is for you and your team. The 7 Focused Habits and theory behind them will ensure that you use your meeting time productively and focused on meaningful dialogue!

The 7 Focused Habits ensure that meetings:

• Prioritize sharing key messages and the current status of a project;

• Communicate what needs to be done and identify the next steps, including: responsibilities, accountabilities and deadlines;

• Maximize people's time instead of abusing it.

Meetings already have a bad reputation. In a 2015 Harris poll, 46 percent of respondents said they'd prefer to do almost anything else instead of attending a meeting. Seventeen percent said they would choose to watch paint dry. As meetings move on-line, the temptation to disengage, and multitask, with the fatigue brought on my virtual meetings, could lead to even less satisfaction.

In a post-Covid world, where more organizations adopt a “new normal” and conduct the majority of meetings via on-line meeting technology.

Adopting the 7 Focused Habits will help ensure that this, relatively sudden, transition does not sacrifice your company's most valuable assets, its time, people and money!

Keep your team focused, productive and engaged using the tips and techniques in this eBook and by bringing GetFocused into your organisation.

The 7 Focused Habits are designed to help make, both remote and in person, meetings purposeful and productive. Creating routines that set you free. Enabling you and your team to work from anywhere!