Sick of meetings? Follow these rules to make them more productive

Almost before you enter the room, you can spot a tedious meeting.

The atmosphere is grim, people are furtively looking at their phones and someone in the corner is yawning.

Of course, at their best meetings can be enlightening, collaborative and useful. But too often they chip away at our productivity and energy.

Just ask the senior executives surveyed by a global management consultancy who rated more than half the meetings they attended as "ineffective" or "very ineffective".

So how can you get the most from the meetings in your diary? You could start by removing them.

The man who deleted every meeting in his calendar

Dominic Price spends a lot of time thinking about how people work together, because it's his job. He works at a fast-growing Australian software company, where teams and the work change constantly.

Recently, he faced a dilemma. Some of his colleagues were asking him for coaching and mentoring, but when he opened his calendar, he couldn't see how he could fit them in.

"It made sense. It was a logical thing to do. I just had no time or even the mental capacity to do a good job of that," he says.

Instead of letting things slide, he took matters into his own hands, starting with the recurring meetings in his calendar.

Like many of us, Dom had problems saying "no" at work, which led to endless invitations to status updates, catch-ups and collaborations.

And, as he quickly realised, many of these meetings weren't the best use of his time.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Dom did something dramatic: he simply deleted all the recurring meetings from his calendar.

To each meeting organiser, he sent a short note asking them to clarify its purpose — and whether he really needed to be there.

The response was telling. About a third of the time, the meetings didn't return to his calendar.

Some of the time, the meeting would continue but Dom's role would be clarified, which freed up mental space and helped him contribute effectively.

Other times, Dom and the organisers realised that while the meeting was important, he didn't need to be there.

"It wasn't me telling anyone how I thought meetings should be run. That would be condescending and patronising," Dom says.

"When you ask your colleagues for help, you'll be amazed how many great ideas come out."

Consider your personality and position at work

While Dom's exercise ended up helping both himself and colleagues, it can be tricky to question someone about a meeting, especially if they're above you on the company ladder.

Libby Sander is an assistant professor of organisational behaviour at Bond University Business School. She says Dom's example may leave colleagues feeling challenged.

"I can imagine a manager saying, 'Of course it's important. Why would I have invited you if you didn't need to be here?'

While your boss might not appreciate you speaking up, asking questions about meetings could be doing them a favour.

The hidden cost of meetings

For one, meetings are wildly expensive.

At one company, leaders discovered a regular 90-minute meeting of mid-level managers was costing more than $20 million per year. (If you're curious how much your own meetings cost, here's a calculator.)

Dr Sander says we should be asking ourselves, "Do we need to have this meeting, or could we achieve the desired outcome in a different way?"

She adds that good reasons to call a meeting include building relationships, solving problems, providing feedback and brainstorming ideas.

If you're just wanting to share some information, you may be able to do that via email, or using communication that doesn't require people to get together at the same time.

Three rules for running a good meeting

After all this, you might be wondering what good meetings and collaboration look like.

It's something Massimo Garbuio, a senior lecturer at The University of Sydney Business School, has spent a lot of time thinking about.

A few years into his career, Dr Garbuio had conversations with two extremely successful colleagues. He wanted to know their secrets: why were they able to get so much good work done?

Their response was the same: they did whatever they could to avoid meetings and committees that occupied much of a typical academic's time.

It made Dr Garbuio reflect on the meetings in his life, and what people can do to make them better.

Here are some of his tips for running a good meeting:

• Have an outcome in mind. What decisions need to be made? Or what outcomes need to be reached? People should leave a meeting with more clarity than before.
• Be prepared — and encourage other people to prepare. Have a clear agenda for the meeting, and a position on the agenda. Is there background material people need to read before the meeting?
• In the meeting, keep the discussion focused. Too often, we use meetings as a tool for procrastination, Dr Garbuio says.

How two people wrote a book while meeting only 30 minutes each week

This framework has paid dividends for Dr Garbuio, who recently wrote a book in one year, with an international co-author he met for just half an hour a week.

It worked because the meetings were used specifically to deal with problems that couldn't be dealt with any other way.

At the start of the project, Dr Garbuio and his co-author spent time outlining the project. They put their regular meeting in the calendar for months in advance to avoid any scheduling problems.

"Just think about how much time you go back and forth for meetings that aren't in your calendar," he says.

"You can take that away from the equation by setting regular meetings up front, with the clear expectation that if nothing comes up that needs to be discussed, the meeting's cancelled."

Whether you're leading a team or struggling under the weight of your diary, we all have a lot to gain from being more thoughtful and efficient about our meetings. It's about time we helped each other out.