Turning
Meetings into Money!
It's 8 a.m. you have an important report due by the end of the day, at
least a dozen phone messages to return, six clients to call, and your beeper is
already screaming for attention. What you didn't anticipate on this exhaustively
busy day at the office was an impromptu, unplanned meeting. By 10 a.m. you're
checking your watch, and by noon you've pretty much given up any hope of
completing that report or getting to your clients because this meeting has
gotten out of hand. It's called "Meeting
Mania ", and it's turning the work day into wasted time, wasted energy,
and most importantly wasted profits!
American workers have a love-hate relationship with meetings. Ask most
office workers whether they spend too much or too little time in meetings, and
you'll hear a resounding "To much.. In fact, it's surprising to learn that
out of an average day, twenty- five to sixty percent of a mid-level managers'
time is devoted entirely to meetings. Research shows that among top executives
it's an amazing eighty percent of their daily calendar that's devoted solely to
meetings. Yet, in a survey conducted by 3M Corporation, participants indicated
that twenty-five to fifty percent of that time is wasted. Equate that into
dollars and lost time on other profitable projects, and the company is looking
at a serious monitory loss. To drive home this point, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics estimates the annual loss to business from unnecessary meetings at
$37 billion dollars. Conversely, not all meetings are an absolute waste of time.
Some actually do generate great ideas, solve problems, and create solutions.
Most are just too lengthy and take an exorbitant amount of time to overcome the
barriers that prevent meeting effectiveness. Unfortunately this has been proven
the majority of the time.
"I would say that of all the meetings that I attend one-third of
them would be more productive through better organization, better preparation
and better control by the person calling the meeting," according to Ron
Bonar, President of the Bonar Group.
Painting
the hazards of the situation won't solve the problem. But at least one company
has created a meaty new tool to combat and eliminate the time wasted efforts of
company meetings. It's called the "Meeting Matrix" and it's changing
the way companies are handling "Meeting
Mania." Produced by Roster Network, Inc., a Fort Wayne company
developing business systems and technologies which are distributed through
independent CPA and business consulting firms, the Meeting Matrix is designed to
help your company seize control of meetings and cut costs, while greatly
enhancing performance and accountability. Roster Network designed the Meeting
Matrix to help solve chronic problems that can stagnate and encumber meetings to
the point where nothing is accomplished and everyone is frustrated and to
provide a proven compass that provides direction, and keeps a steady rein on the
course of the meeting. It's format is designed to produce results. By using the
Meeting Matrix, a company can easily measure the time employees devote to
meetings. This time can be qualitatively assessed. Productive and profitable
practices can be identified and encourage growth. Ineffective and expensive
meeting practices can be isolated and eliminated. Ultimately, the person who
calls the meeting is accountable to those who attend for achieving a worthwhile,
predetermined outcome. And the employees love it, because they can be much more
productive when their time is well spent.
The
Roster Network has successfully instilled the Meeting Matrix within numerous
companies throughout the Midwest. In some cases, employees are calling it their
bench mark for a successful meeting. Providing that the Meeting Matrix is
followed accurately, the outcome of the meeting will be beneficial to all. It's
a results oriented plan specifically designed to streamline the meeting process
and produce huge benefits for the company and its employees.
The Roster Network has established itself as an organization that
provides proven proprietary technologies and tools to systematically improve
profits, by documenting what people do and how they do it. These resources have
already helped companies improve their bottom line by eliminating wasted time.
Now, instead of checking your watch, worrying about the clients you've missed, and ignoring your teasing beeper, you'll have more time to be productive and thrive in the fact that your meeting wasn't just another waste of time.