Inspiring Workplaces 
The Way Work Ought to Be!

#1,103- Dec. 3, 2025

Do you need to go on a meeting diet in your workplace? 

A Microsoft survey of 38,000 people revealed that 69% of the time people spend in meetings is unproductive time, while a Salary.com survey found that 47% of employees complained that there were far too many meetings in their workplace. 

Here are some tips that might help on both fronts: 

• Would a meeting diet help? While communication is undeniably important, challenge your assumptions that every meeting is needed. Are you meeting out of habit or out of a real need? 
• Make better use of virtual technology. Can meeting virtually more often save you time, money, and stress?
• Can you reduce the number of longer meetings by tapping into the power of quick (10 minutes maximum) daily team huddles?
• Are you relentlessly asking who really needs to be at every meeting? There's a difference between interested parties (who want to know the outcome of a meeting) vs. people who truly need to be present! 
• Do you always clarify the purpose of your meeting before the start and have a clear agenda that you actually, you now, stick to? 
• Can single-purpose theme meetings help you be more productive and focused?
• Meetings love a vacuum: If you book two hours you'll fill two hours! 
• Can you employ some fun methods to keep you on track? Encourage people to start on time by having the last person sing a song or pay a fine towards your social fund. Stay focused the way Brivo does by using a "No rehash" ping pong paddle that participants can raise if someone feels a point has already been made.  
• Eliminate distractions with mock security check-in to confiscate everyone's e-gadgets. 
• Try holding, as some companies do, one or even two days a week where no meetings are scheduled to help free up employees for more productive days.  

As always, I would love to hear your ideas on what you've seen, or hear what your workplace does when it comes to having fewer and/or more focused meetings!