Meeting load as a strategic performance issue
Count preparation and follow through as part of meeting demand. A full diary can hide the absence of time to deliver decisions.
The performance question
Meeting hours alone cannot tell you whether a forum is useful. A necessary risk review can prevent costly rework, while an update meeting can repeat information already available. The issue is whether the total meeting system leaves capacity for analysis, decisions and implementation.
What the evidence supports
HSE notes that workload includes information processing, communications and decision making, and can drift as activities are added. It does not prescribe a maximum meeting quota or prove that fewer meetings always improve performance.1
A practical approach
Audit recurring forums with their purpose, attendees, preparation and resulting actions. Remove duplicated reporting and narrow attendance where authority is already clear. Protect time after decision meetings for follow through. Keep forums that resolve cross functional trade offs or provide necessary challenge, even if they appear expensive in diary hours.
How to review progress
Compare total meeting demand with action completion and decision waiting time. Ask whether excluded colleagues still receive essential information. A reduction in hours is not success if work moves into fragmented messages or decisions become less accountable.
Sources and references
- Human factors: Workload Opens in a new tab
Health and Safety Executive
Processing limits, task analysis, workload drift and staffing
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