THE END OF MEETINGS AS WE KNOW THEM
With the fast pace of modern life, it is increasingly common to hear people complain about having too many meetings on their work schedule. However, what would happen if meetings ceased to exist? How would this affect the way we work and collaborate in the workplace?
The truth is that while it may seem appealing to think of a meeting-free world, in reality, meetings are essential for communication and decision-making in the workplace. However, it is important to keep in mind that inefficient or poorly planned meetings can be a real bottleneck in our productivity.
To solve this problem, it is important to be aware of the need to have meetings and make sure that they are as efficient as possible. This can be achieved by planning meetings carefully, setting a clear objective and detailed agenda, and ensuring that only the relevant people are present. It is also important to set a time limit for meetings and make sure they are adhered to.
In addition to this, there are alternatives to traditional meetings that can help reduce the amount of time spent in meetings. Instant communication tools like email and text messages can help resolve issues quickly without the need for a meeting. There are also project management apps that can help teams collaborate and stay on track without the need to meet regularly.
A great example is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon maintains that the more people participate in a meeting, the less productive it will be. Shopify, which is a Canadian technology, announced a radical reduction in the number of meetings of its employees both in person and virtually, as a test they have canceled face-to-face meetings for a period of two weeks. In this way Shopify joins the big companies like Meta (facebook), Twilio, Atlassian and Clorox. These companies work to end the number of meetings that the only thing they generate is unproductiveness and lengthen their working hours.
The founder of the ThinkWasabi consultancy, who has been providing his knowledge to giant companies such as HP, BMW, Mango for a long time, confirms that meetings have become opinion forums and have lost their focus as places of decision.
Ultimately, the end of meetings is not something we should look for. Instead, we should focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of meetings, so we can get the most out of them and keep moving our work forward. An example of this is to carry them out only when necessary, in a short time, looking for answers to the problems or needs to work on.
It would be ideal if the meetings were not taken as a meeting between boss and employee in which tasks to be executed are ordered, but rather as a chat meeting seeking to respond to needs.