University Name: Managing Meetings - Efficient Strategies Report

This report, prepared by a student, focuses on strategies to reduce the number of meetings within an organization to improve efficiency. The report begins by quantifying the impact of meetings on the workforce, expressed as a function of the number of meetings, average attendees, and duration. The core of the report involves practical recommendations, such as reducing the frequency of recurring meetings, eliminating meetings with no clear value, and combining similar meetings. It also delves into the importance of simplifying decision-making processes to avoid unnecessary meetings. The report emphasizes the concept of information synchronization before meetings to optimize the use of meeting time. The student proposes a two-phase meeting structure, where information is shared beforehand, followed by a concise decision-making phase during the meeting. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of reducing the number of meetings to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of those that remain. The report references several sources to support the strategies proposed.

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Student Name
University Name
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Contents
How to reduce the number of meetings held in my company.........................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................6
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How to reduce the number of meetings held in my company
I work in ABC organization. The best way to reduce the number of meetings for 60 pax
workforce is to make the meeting culture more efficient.
My organization has always been concerned with the extent to which the conference interferes
with the rest of the workforce; this can be quantified by the total number of meetings per unit of
time (such as the month). This is the footprint of our entire conference, and we want to minimize
our functional advantages of a meeting we need. Clearly, this factor (personal hours every
month) can be expressed as follows:
F = n * a * t, where
a = average number of attendees per meeting
n = number of meetings per month
t = average duration of a meeting in hours
F reduction by reducing any of these three components; ideally, we maximize the benefits of
each meeting (a good measure can be the net value created by each participant per hour); at the
end of the day, we hope to have an optimal number of well-organized meetings to support the
end result of the organization. We focus on improving the footprint of optimization n, a, and t.
Each of these factors has a midpoint benefit curve; the trick is to find and get this position. The
trick is to determine which type of meetings can be cancelled without harmful effects. Here are a
few concepts to properly consider: we reduce the frequency of recurring meetings - for example,
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replacing weekly project reviews with bi-weekly meetings (possibly in the case of increased
time, for example, a 1.5-hour meeting every two weeks, replacing One-hour meeting twice a
week) (Cannon, 2018).
We can also completely cancel any meeting that has no obvious value. These might be leftovers
of a long-lost process. It can also include meetings that need to be done for effective purposes
where there is no scope of making necessary decisions for this purpose.
Combine two meetings into one meaningful combined meeting. For example, if two item
comments have similar attendees, do so in one meeting (Martin, 2012).
Simplify the decision-making process to achieve a non-meeting alternative - not everything
needs the approval of ten to fifteen people to decide. More power our employees make in making
decisions, the clearer the process becomes and the fewer meetings are required: in daily business,
emails might allow the correct person to make a decision.
Phase #1 - Information Sync
Information is presented by a single or multiple speakers. Others can comment or ask questions
until we reach the end of a good stage for everyone, this will be an extension, saying that
everyone has a deep understanding of the information provided, but it knows that the information
is present there and having a short time to handle it (Zeldes, 2014).
Phase #2 - Decision Time
Given the shared information, all participants are now “synchronized” and can continue to make
decisions.
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We see this pattern in every meeting. For example, once a week - everyone\teams share their
weekly achievements while others listen, (or hide behind their phones) and discuss the next
week's plan after each person completes any time.
We call this kind of meeting shallow. Why? We received a lot of information, had little time to
process it, and then asked to make a decision based on it. They are also a waste of time because
the purpose of the first meeting is to discuss the future and make decisions (Phase 2) and past
synchronization (Phase 1) usually takes up the number of time meetings required for production.
How to improve? Just take the #1 stage offline. Make sure everyone syncs before the meeting
(by email or any wiki\discussion board of our choice to pre-release their achievements\charts\
discussion points), cut the meeting time in half, and most importantly - I'm sure they really
concentrate on them to the second stage.
So in a nutshell, reducing the number of meetings raises the bar and increases the number of
meetings that we really want.
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References
Cannon, K. (2018). CHMP meetings: How to prepare for, manage and excel at these EU
regulatory meetings. Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs: Open Access, 07. doi:
10.4172/2167-7689-c1-030
How to Reduce Your Meeting Time by 75 Percent--Now. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.inc.com/val-wright/how-to-reduce-your-meeting-time-by-75-percent-
now.html
Martin, V. (2012). How to manage meetings. Nursing Management, 7(8), 30-34. doi:
10.7748/nm2000.12.7.8.30.c2075
Tips to Ensure You Hold Effective Meetings That Produce Results. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/effective-meetings-produce-results-before-the-
meeting-1918729
Workplace Meetings - Management - Oxford Bibliographies - obo. (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846740/obo-
9780199846740-0017.xml
Zeldes, N. (2014). How to Reduce Meeting Footprint in Your Organization. Retrieved from
http://www.nathanzeldes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Reducing-Meeting-
Footprint.pdf
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