I used to be a devotee of the CBS show “Survivor.” It’s fascinating the way that human beings adapt and live through horrible, if contrived circumstances. In the corporate world, the equivalent of Survivor is the dreaded business meeting. You don’t have to be wearing a loin cloth and eating worms to feel like a contestant. Running from meeting to meeting, you must learn to outwit, outlast and outplay.
Like travelers in a jungle without food, water or time to think, people are desperate. It’s not just physical deprivation. It is the emotional toll. When meetings routinely start late, run long, are badly managed, and accomplish little, you go a little insane. To survive, you must outwit. Come late; schedule calls during the meetings on purpose; duck out to answer “emergency” email; or just don’t show up. Manipulate people to make them think you’re with them; leave the meeting and shoot them down behind their backs. It’s a brutal, brutal game.

Yesterday I was coaching a leadership team, and decided to throw down the gauntlet. The topic was leading great meetings. Something had to be done to shake things up. I said, “Name one routine meeting that you could cut out altogether, or cut in half. Add up the hours you would save.” In the room: 11 leaders. These are their numbers: 45, 45, 200, 10, 45, 25, 25, 45, 45, 90, 25. That 600 hours a year. For 11 people.

Take it macro. The company has roughly 27,000 employees. Imagine 20,000 of them routinely attend these types of meetings. I could be flip and say “you do the math,” but what the heck - let me get out my calculator. Hold on … it’s 12,000,000. That is not a typo. 12 million “man hours.” By cutting out one meeting.

12 million is the record number of the famous posters Farrah Fawcet sold. 12 million is a lot of hours. Hours that could be spent productively doing the work that drives your company forward.
Is it really possible to save this much time? Of course! There are three aspects to meeting “management:”

Planning - how you prepare for the meeting
Conducting - what happens when you get into the room
Leading - the vital role that a meeting “owner” plays
The secret to success is commitment. Learn the skills, commit to a new path, develop guidelines. Come back in a month. Take stock. No excuses.

Pretty soon, meetings start..going well. You know how on Survivor when they get to take the luxury sailboat cruise around the island and get a hot shower, a burger and a beer? People feel human again. They want to get off the island.

Here are a few “get off the island” tips:

Decide whether or not to have the meeting - how else can you handle it?

Eliminate people who don’t need to attend - the more people, the more time things take.

Communicate the purpose of the meeting - if you don’t konw why you’re here, it expands.

Send a written agenda in advance so people come prepared and stick to the topics.

Get rid of the “optional” and “tentative” invitations- commit or don’t have the meeting.

Get decision makers and stakeholders to the table - otherwise you’ll be having another meeting.

Always go by the agenda; time for each item, owners, next step, outcomes.

Set aside ten minutes at the end of every single meeting to assign tasks and deadlines.

Plan shorter meetings. 10 minutes instead of 20. 20 instead of 30. 50 instead of an hour.

Don’t tell me “It’s not our culture,” or We’re a very inclusive group, we like to discuss things.”
Culture schmulture. Anyone can do this.
Or not. That’s okay. Back to the island for you. Pass the worms.