Meetings Are Necessary for Managers

Many schools of management regard meetings as the biggest waste of employees’ working lives. In many organisations, meetings consume more than half of people’s total work hours.

A large part of middle managers’ work involves gathering information, supplying knowledge, providing expertise, influencing decisions, and helping with decision-making. Meetings are a highly effective medium (and sometimes the only medium) for these purposes.

There are two types of meetings based on these managerial responsibilities: process-oriented meetings and mission-oriented meetings. Mission-oriented meetings are ad-hoc sessions, often organised at short notice to solve specific problems.

Rather than eliminating meetings altogether, managers should scrutinise every meeting they attend and ensure their time is used as efficiently as possible.