Meetings worry many big businessmen. At Xataka we have ever talked about the rules that leaders in the technology sector such as Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk set for this type of meeting in their companies. All of them, after years running large corporations, agree on one aspect: there are too many or they last too long, and this seriously impairs the productivity of his subordinates. In fact, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has gone so far as to say that excessive meetings are “the plague” of large companies.
Your intuition is correct.
A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) confirms what they all suspect: too many meetings kill company productivity. The investigation offers concrete figures: the companies that completely eliminated these meetings three days a week increased their productivity by 73%reduced their employees’ stress by 57% and improved overall satisfaction by 65%.
The authors of the study point out that, although it may seem contradictory, meetings detract from effective collaboration, because they distract workers during their most productive hours, causing them to lose concentration and reduce their performance. Instead, they point out, when those same employees used communication and management tools, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, they connected better without losing concentration or becoming stressed.
The study also explains that by using written communication tools to eliminate meetings several days a week, misunderstandings were reducedbecause the resolutions and instructions were collected in texts that those involved could consult whenever they wanted.
For this study, some 76 companies with more than 1,000 employees were surveyed and asked to completely eliminate meetings a certain number of days a week, from one to five, for 12 months. The researchers verified that the benefits of not having meetings increased progressively in those who had one to three days free from these meetings, and that after four days without them the advantages were reduced.
Therefore, the authors have concluded that the optimal number of meeting-free days per week is three, leaving the other two for essential meetings. The researchers point out that with this number of days without meetings, the maximum potential for productivity and well-being associated with this measure is reached.
informal meetings
This is something that more recent research has confirmed. The study admits that meetings are a good opportunity to socialize, but those of a purely professional and formal nature are not a natural form of communication between human beings. For this reason, he points out that it is a good idea to use written communication tools for professional and bet more on informal personal encounterswithout an agenda, to satisfy the need to interact with the other members of the company.
The research also reveals that there are benefits to sharing entertainment material through professional communication channels such as memes, current affairs, sports, vacation plans and emojis, as they help to bring team members closer and allow them to express themselves as they are. .
Lastly, the researchers recommend that a clear agenda and objectives be established in formal meetings, which will mean that those responsible have prepared it conscientiously and attendees have material before attending, in such a way that they already handle the basic information and the conversation focuses on the important issues.
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