Anatomy of Creative Leadership by Russ Schoen

 If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.
– Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”

I love the quote above!  Maybe because in our innovation workshops, I’ll often ask participants, "who has been in a meeting recently that you’d consider a total waste of time?" And the response? A majority of participants shake their heads yes or begin laughing.

Which set me off in search of a few statistics in terms of meetings and what attendees think of them? So here are two interesting statistics I found. See if you can guess the answers.

1) Approximately, how many meetings are held each day in the US?*

 

2) What % of those meetings are characterized as a waste of time by attendees?*

See answers below
*source: (MIT Sloan Management: The Science and Fiction of Meetings: Winter 2007) 

And now the ANSWERS… 

1) 11,000,000 (Yes millions)

2) Between 25 - 50% are considered a waste 

So my question is from your perspective, what separates great meetings from a waste of time?

Please comment.