The High Cost of Poor Meeting Communication
What Every Leader Should Know
Remember the basic rules in Kindergarten?
Be kind. Wait your turn. Respect one another.
At what point did those simple and powerful basic rules seemingly get shoved aside as adulthood set in and we turned into working professionals?
We can probably all remember a meeting at work where at least one of those rules was compromised:
Someone raised their voice or expressed frustration in an unproductive or disruptive way.
Not everyone had the chance to speak or contribute.
People were scrolling on their phones or having side conversations.
We know cool heads and common sense should prevail in the workplace when it comes to communication etiquette, but that doesn’t always seem to be the case.
Common sense that is apparently not that common.
The following article explores workplace communication, specifically as it relates to meetings, and leader considerations to ensure your team is primed for engagement, productivity, and success.
The Speed of Business
It used to be that you came to work, did your job, and went home at the end of the day, most likely not thinking about work until you returned the next day. However, not many places of business continue to operate that way. Thanks to industrialization, technology, globalization, and competition, the pace of business is exponentially faster. Leaders and managers are feeling the push to do more with less, and it’s not always easy.
The Cost of Bad Communication
A 2022 Grammarly report noted that the average US knowledge worker loses 7.47 hours of work time per week due to poor communication in the workplace – that’s almost a full working day a week. If an employee earns a salary of ~$67,000 USD, that equals $12,506 per employee per year. Experts estimate that the total cost of wasted labour hours in the US is $1.2T USD per year.
Stated slightly differently, a recent report by Coursera noted that for businesses with at least 100 employees, miscommunication cost each of them $450,000 on average per year.
Imagine if those wasted resources were actually contributing to the business.
Improve Meeting Communication to Recoup those Losses
The Coursera report also highlights meetings as an area to focus on to improve communication within organizations. It’s a known fact that labour costs are typically the greatest expense for a business. Consider that most employees spend 20% to 60% of their time in meetings, and it’s easy to understand why improving meeting culture could be a primary source of competitive advantage for companies.
But it’s not just what is communicated IN a meeting that is relevant: turns out that meeting communication also includes pre-post meeting considerations, spoken and unspoken messaging, and other factors beyond what is said in meetings themselves.
For company leaders, here are recommendations to help you improve your meeting related communication:
1. Diversify meeting approaches:
Encourage more participant voices to be heard by kindly interrupting when attendees get off topic. Incorporate creative tactics such as agendas or PowerPoint presentations to add variety to the usual meeting format, and the use of silence during group meetings - a concept we’ll explore in a future article.
2. Enable active participation during 1:1s:
Leading organizational psychologist and researcher, Dr. Steven Rogelberg, memorably noted that talking about oneself fires up the same areas in the brain as sex and good food. So while it may feel good, managers should resist the temptation to monopolize the conversation and allow their direct reports to talk more. Dr. Rogelberg explains how this works in this five minute video.
3. Be present:
No one likes an absentee manager, and this is often not talked about enough. In fact, employees reportedly struggle more with an absentee manager than one that treats them poorly. Be there for your team and lead by example with the behaviours you want to see.
4. Integrate feedback loops:
Often managers are the only ones providing feedback. However, employees can also provide insight and important perspectives. Fostering a culture of psychological safety where your direct reports are comfortable not just receiving feedback but also giving it, promotes continuous improvement and agile execution.
Can’t wait? Grab a coffee and give us 15 minutes. We’ll share key takeaways from meeting science research, and how you can apply these insights to shift meeting culture and accelerate your organization’s growth and scale.
Thinking Outside the Meeting Box
Research shows that what takes place before a meeting is also important and impacts how attendees perceive the success and effectiveness of a meeting. For managers, arrive early and pay attention to the interactions happening before a meeting. There are four types of pre-meeting communication including:
- Small talk – conversations that are not explicitly work or task focused
- Example – talking about the weather or what attendees did on the weekend
- Meeting preparatory talk – discussion related to specifics of the upcoming meeting
- Example – talking about the agenda or topics/questions attendees want to cover
- Work talk – conversations related to engaging in actual work-related tasks
- Example – talking through how to solve a work problem
- Shop talk – discussion about people, events, and issues at work but not about specific tasks
- Example – talking about office politics or top performers.
It’s a Hot Mess at Times
And while pre-meeting conversations impact meeting perceptions, there are many other elements at play that affect meeting effectiveness. Consider the multitude of personalities present – not just of the attendees but also of the managers and their respective leadership styles. Add in the rapid pace of business and pressure to achieve more with less. We haven’t even touched on the complexities of remote and hybrid workplaces, and the communication challenges that can exist in those environments.
That is why having someone specifically focused on meetings within your company is critical.
Allow us to introduce the Chief Meeting Officer (CMO).
Why Every Business Needs a CMO (we’re not talking marketing)
A recent report cited that 50% of employees feel that meetings at their workplace are a waste of time. To address that, many companies are introducing the role of a Chief Meeting Officer (CMO), whose function is to enable meetings that are inclusive, engaging, and effective. However, successful meetings are a shared responsibility with joint accountability by team managers and their direct reports. We will explore that concept in a future blog.
To learn more about meeting culture, CMO’s, and how our integrated meeting solutions software can help company leaders leverage the untapped potential of meetings, contact us. Using data and analytics, the Kairos platform automates meeting preparation and helps leaders create productive and empowered teams to accelerate momentum and achieve results.
