How often do you attend a meeting purely out of habit without thinking about the reason why? Standing meetings sound like a good idea when scheduled but they don’t always age well. At the start of the new year, our project management office took time to re-evaluate the recurring meetings that fill so much of our calendars. Meeting frequency, duration, and attendees were examined, as was the purpose of each series. If the purpose could not be articulated or if it was no longer applicable, the series was ended. If the guest list had grown unproductively large, we trimmed it. If we struggled to fill an hour each week, we shortened the meeting or made it every other week.
To paraphrase this Forbes article, one of the most dangerous phrases to hear is, “We’ve always done it this way.” It’s certainly easy to keep going in a familiar direction, but meaningful and purposeful change can often lead to future success. We are optimistic that our recent efforts will transform recurring meetings from calendared obligations to opportunities for engagement and collaboration.