10 Ways to Quickly Derail a Meeting

Meeting time is expensive time for your team. A good exercise to get perspective on costs is to calculate the hourly rate of the leaders meeting by the time spent in meetings. In most cases, the price tag is high. But equally important is the unintended cost of missed opportunities due to meeting time.

A good way to get perspective on costs is to calculate the hourly rate of the time leaders spend in meetings. Click To Tweet

Recently, our President/CEO did an audit of our senior leader meetings and made the decision to cut our meeting times in half. This was a radical decision that has proved to be a great decision. Our informal times as leaders has increased and our ability to solve problems, develop solutions, discuss leader development, and focus on future opportunities has greatly increased. Consequently, when we do meet, we are able to be more effective as an executive team.

A derailed meeting is a costly meeting in time, productivity, energy level, and has long-term impact on the culture.

Here are 10 ways a meeting can quickly derail:

1. One person dominates the meeting using the time for their own agendas.

2. A total disregard for the agenda and the objectives of the meeting.

3. No respect for the beginning and ending time.

4. Anger or emotional outbursts.

5. Passive aggressive undertones.

6. Personal attacks on people at the meeting.

7. Someone not being prepared to present well their item on the agenda.

8. Non-verbal language by someone that clearly communicates I don’t want to be at this meeting.

9. No clearly stated objective or plan for the meeting.

10. Not ending well with clearly stated action plans or next steps.

If any of these are taking place on your team, you are losing momentum as an organization. There is an urgent need for you to take immediate action to reset the meeting culture. An audit of meetings (confidential surveys are good) is a good step to take to make sure your meetings are productive and effective at developing a strong and healthy organization for the decades to come.

A derailed meeting is a costly meeting in time, productivity, and has long-term impact. Click To Tweet

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Ephesians 5:15-17

What are some ways you have seen meetings derailed?

Blessings,