… and the value of nothing.
I’m focusing more time evaluating time investments moment-by-moment; critically considering these costs against the value they yield. In my recent past in managing a team and working within an org, I was regularly staggered by the amount of time spent in meetings and discussions around our goals and not much work towards the actual goal of completing our work.
Here’s my math for an org that has this toxic meeting approach:
Scheduling a meeting with 4 senior leaders, two line managers, and an SME to collect project status.
One 1 hour meeting, pre-read time and follow ups = 21 man hours at an average cost per hour of $300
Total Cost = $6300
Doing this once a day for a year = $1,638,000.00 (think org-wide calendars)
Why do we need so many meetings? You don’t.
But, there’s no other way to get people to share statuses and continue momentum towards projects. Wrong. It’s called trust.
Trust people, make them accountable to the trust in your relationship and they will perform. If they consistently don’t do what you need them to do, fire them.
“Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required.”
– Winston Churchill