QUESTION OF THE DAY
How much does your meeting cost?
# Participants x Hourly Cost x Meeting Time
That's the human cost. Don't forget to add the cost of coffee, sandwiches, and venue :)
Did you ever start your meeting saying - “Welcome, we will spend the next hour discussing and deciding the following topics at the cost of $750 + coffee”? If not you should try it! You will get a couple of weird looks at first but It will change the dynamics and focus of your meeting and will put more accountability on the outcome - people will be more keen to generate value knowing how much the meeting costs.
Looking at the graphic above - how do you define a meeting, and how do you calculate its cost against the value it generates?
Meetings can be a powerful tool to engage, align, disagree, decide, and generally move things forward, but too often, not enough attention is paid to the cost and the output.
Patric Lencioni offers some advice on how to make a lousy meeting a great one
"The biggest problem of meetings is the tendency to throw every type of issue that needs to be discussed into the same meeting, like a bad stew with too many random ingredients."
"The agenda should be based on what everyone is working on and how the company is performing against its goals, not based on the leader's best guess forty-eight hours before the meeting."
Think back over the last week. How many meetings you attended were critical, and how many were not necessary? How many did you attend for Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)? If you own the meeting, make sure it is planned properly, with an agenda and outcome, and invite just the right people. Don't be disrespectful and cancel a meeting at the last minute. If working with people in other regions, don’t ask them to attend meetings at 3 am. Make sure you rotate the times, so it is not always one person having to stay up late.
CONVERT THE MEETING TIME TO ITS COST. IT GETS ATTENTION
Our Solution calculates the cost of human participation in meetings and allocates it to projects and customer engagements. You see the cost of the project/engagement as well as real-time profitability. You see the whole picture through a different lens over time.
Success is never solely down to creative ideas or unique products or services. The difference between success and failure is actually down to the fundamentals of how you operationalize your business. Check our guide to the best operational and transformation practices, that people love.
THE SECRETS OF RUNNING BUSINESS WITH EASE
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