7 symptoms of bad meetings and what you can do about them

The door to the meeting room opens. It’s the person who called the meeting, 10 minutes late. His previous meeting ended late and he had to stop by his office to pick up notes to remind him of what this meeting was about.

The folks in the room are discussing last night’s game and wondering how long the meeting is going to last. Only one person remembers getting the last meeting’s notes. And he’s the only one who has a copy of the report they’re supposed to discuss.

Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone. One statement everyone agrees on: Meetings often waste time and money. Scary meeting statistics abound. Software company Atlassian’s infographic asserts that U.S. businesses waste $37 billion a year. Some of that likely was wasted in your organization.

It’s strange that this waste isn’t first on anyone’s list to get fixed. If we waste billions, why don’t corporations make the effort to fix it? Is it due to lack of accountability? But this is something within our control.

Some symptoms of bad meetings and what you can do to fix them.