I couldn't agree, at my work when a deadline is approcahing a piece of work, we move from weekly project meetings to daily project meetings in order to update everyone on the last 24hours progress - so the net result being as the deadline gets closer you have less time to work because you have more meetings - I guess you have to justify some peoples jobs, in which progress appears to be related to number of meetings!

Most meetings are a waste of time - well in excess of 50% in fact.

I turn over $150,000 a year in my small business and I have no more than one meeting a month. In my career in government I usually had at least 1 a day!

Also, NZ over-uses the job title "Manager" to a greater extent than any other country I have worked in (9 to date) - every other person here is a "manager" in title but rarely in actual job role. Ridiculous.

Couldn't agree with you more Dennis. My partner today is off to a meeting with a group of people who do not agree with company direction and they, as of yesterday did not even have a plan. As a result this session will become nothing more than personal venting with absolutely no focus on the root causes of the issues - usually the systems and processes they work under. I worked for a company who for tens years before I moved on worked within this business philosophy and we were one of the most successful companies in our industry. Don't shoot the messenger-such a wonderful phrase.

I spend about 10 hours a week in scheduled meetings, plus then there are the 'impromptu meetings'... Every time we think we've managed to cull them down to one or two meetings a week, a new series of meetings appear. I'm sure my MD comes up with meetings just to hide the low amount of work he has to do or pick our brains for the best ideas to be given out as his ideas at his next meeting with HIS boss...

meetings do waste time when they lack strict management processes to ensure off track material is not presented in.

Meetings are not a time to relax they are a time to comment on the overall output that is to say, what is going on that is good and what bad parts are entering and where grey areas are.

Meetings shouldnt recap on th eprevious meeting unless its a project meeting otherwise people think what happened last time hasnt been resolved and their thinking relates back to the past than future or present events.

Lol, tell us something we don't know!

Kiwis can be bad at meetings because they rudely interupt people when they speak. So only the loudest people get to say anything. My kiwi engineering friend had a huge culture shock when he worked in Sweden. In meetings people would speak once for minutes to present a coherent argument. When my friend repeatedly interrupted others he reaslised not only was he making a fool of himself but also ruining the meeting.

And still we do things by 'committee meeting', After 6 weeks in Japan I NEVER want to go to another meeting. Ground hog Day... day, day, week, week week...month

Unfortunately I work in a company where meetings are embedded into the culture, such that it is very difficult to find time to address the issues raised in the meetings. Therefore we get further and further behind deadlines, which means more meetings to re-prioritise.

If you have ever seen the British comedy Red Dwarf, there is an episode where one of the main characters (Rimmer) has to study for an exam. In order to prepare, he constructs a revision timetable, but then revises it constantly. As he is spending more time on his timetable than his study, he has to constantly revise the timetable to counter for the fact he is now behind. The net result is he doesn't find anytime to study and fails. Kind of like having too many meetings!

The numbers here are pretty good. I wish only 25% of the meetings I attended were a waste of time.

One way to improve meetings is to refuse to attend any meetings that lack either an agenda or a person that keeps the meeting on track.

Beauracracy Rules #4: At least the meetings prevent people from doing other things which could be even more damaging to the company.