Ohio University's Sue DeWine says meetings that waste time are costing millions of dollars. Top-level managers spend 70 to 80 percent of their time in meetings. She says done right, meetings are critical to a company's decision- making process. But the need to make them efficient and effective is never more critical because they're using up more and more of our time. Trouble is, meetings too often are not done right and generate numerous criticisms from those who attend.
People get off topic.
There are a lot of other things going on in the meeting other than the task at hand. DeWine says one way to make sure a meeting is productive is to assign someone the role of facilitator. This person keeps the group focused and, perhaps more importantly, makes sure a schedule is kept. And you lose all track of the amount of time that you've spent on that topic. Management experts say in some cases it may be best not to have a meeting at all and other means should be used to achieve objectives.