Saw a huge shift in our team's meeting culture over 6 months

I manage operations for a small marketing firm in Austin. Back in January, we were averaging 12 hours of meetings per week per person and nothing was getting done. I pushed for a strict 30-minute cap on all standups and moved status updates to a shared Google Doc instead. By March, the meeting hours dropped to 6 hours a week. The big change was giving people permission to skip anything that wasn't directly their decision to make. Has anyone else tried cutting meeting time and seen real results in their team?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade_hunt4814d ago

Wait, are you saying you cut from 12 hours of meetings per week to 6 hours? That's a huge drop, but I'm not sure it's a full "strict 30-minute cap" that did it. I mean, you moved status updates to a doc, which is smart, but that alone probably saved you like 2-3 hours, not 6. Did you also cancel entire recurring meetings or just shorten them? Because if you kept the same number of meetings but made them shorter, you'd still be spending time on the same topics, just rushed. Also, giving people permission to skip stuff is great in theory, but in practice some folks might still feel pressured to show up. Just my two cents, not trying to be rude or anything.

adams.troy13d ago

Ha, Jade, fair point! I’d say we also got better at ASKING if a meeting was even needed before scheduling it, which is probably where the other 3 hours went. @jade_hunt48 You’re right though, sometimes I still show up to a meeting I could skip just because the invite sits there and I’m a sucker for a calendar reminder.