Top 10 Moans About Meetings
Have you ever been to a meeting and felt frustrated because the discussion was being side tracked? Or wondered if anyone was actually leading the meeting? Do you think meetings are conducted out of habit rather than necessity? If so, you are not alone. An E-mail survey conducted by conference and event bookings agency First Option, has revealed the top 10 pet hates about meetings.
The results are:
1. | Drifting off the topic | 67% |
2. | Lack of Leadership | 63% |
3. | No natural daylight | 51% |
4. | Meetings for meetings sake | 44% |
5. | The broken record (someone making the same point over and over) | 42% |
6. | Running over time | 40% |
7. | Meetings with no purpose | 39% |
8. | Interruptions from mobiles/pagers | 35% |
9. | Refreshments not refreshed regularly | 30% |
10. | The cynical challenger (someone who always criticises but is rarely forthcoming with ideas themselves) | 28% |
Just outside the top 10 was poor equipment (26%), having no agenda (25%) and the chatty disruptive neighbour (25%).
Meetings are an essential way of communicating information amongst colleagues and companies, but it looks like the process has yet to be mastered, with the lack of leadership and keeping the discussions within the agenda the biggest bugbear.
As well as being critical about their fellow colleagues in meetings, the poll showed there’s also strong feeling about the environment in which a meeting is held. Over half the respondents complained about lack of natural light – an important factor that could be under your control.