Low hanging fruit for efficiency gains: making meetings suck less

Meetings are a huge time sink for companies, with workers spending around two days a week in them. Yet research shows most lack clear purpose and fail to engage employees. This wastes critical talent resources amid mounting business pressures. The problem is especially acute in one-on-ones between managers and direct reports. Despite their talent impact, managers often poorly structure these meetings when they are not ‘pushed’ out of convenience. 

HR should address this issue by training managers on effective one-on-one facilitation focused on the needs of direct reports. They can also survey engagement on meeting quality and create lightweight one-on-one support systems. Well-run meetings boost performance, so optimizing them brings major returns. The alternative of discouraged employees and managers failing to connect hurts engagement, advancement and retention.

More broadly, the common "meeting after the meeting" slows decision making when people only express dissent privately afterwards. Leaders can draw out objections in the room by modeling openness, thanking dissenters and requiring agreement before finalizing choices. Shutting down tough conversations leads to groupthink. Fostering honest debate, even on hard topics, prevents the need for side-channel griping and drives better outcomes.