Guest Post - Steven Suchora

Steven is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.

Why Do We Still Have Meetings?

“I love going to meetings! Don’t you?”

Wow, that’s not something you hear often, is it?  We spend, on average, 5.7 years of our life attending meetings.  Many of those meetings are unnecessary, so it’s no surprise that many of us would rather not have our workday disrupted by having a meeting.

Why, then, do we have still meetings?  With the advent of modern communication technology, such as two way video conferencing, meeting in one designated physical location seems unnecessary.  There are three key advantages to having a face-to-face meeting. 

First, a meeting allows all members to quickly share new information.  Every time we get together as a group is another opportunity to add to and change the collective sum of group knowledge.  Gathering in the same physical space to share our insight and perspective with others at a personal level can trigger the dynamic generation of new ideas.

Second, a meeting helps to define the team.  Each person at the meeting is taking precious time to be there and therefore has a vested interest in making sure that the meeting is a worthy use of time.  Thus, each person feels a sense of being part of a team via this shared commitment to the meeting.

Third, a meeting can help elicit greater commitment from participants to fulfill goals and accomplish tasks.  If someone announces to everyone at the meeting that he or she will commit to a specific task or goal, that individual is more likely to fulfill his or her obligations.  This is due to an internally felt sense of psychological commitment to our peers. 

Thus, even though we may not like to attend meetings, an in-person meeting can help accomplish goals and move your organization forward in ways that digital communication tools could not.

Sources:

Labash, Chris.  "Better Meetings."  Heinz College, CMU, Pittsburgh, PA.  6 Feb. 2012.  Lecture.

The Scotsman.  "Meetings Waste 5.7 Years of Your Life."  Scotsman.com. EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago Citation Styles, 21 Aug. 2008.  Web.  08 Feb. 2012. <http://www.scotsman.com/news/meetings_waste_5_7_years_of_your_life_1_1087079>.