The average employee spends 31 hours every month in meetings that don’t add value. That’s almost an entire workweek lost every single month. This figure comes from a study published by the Harvard Business Review, which highlights how much time is wasted in unnecessary discussions. According to CBS MoneyWatch, citing research by Professor Steven Rogelberg from UNC Charlotte, unproductive meetings cost U.S. businesses $37 billion annually, and large companies can lose over $100 million a year from unnecessary meetings. Meanwhile, the 2025 State of Meetings Report by Flowtrace reveals that organizations dedicate roughly 15% of their time to meetings even though 67% are deemed unproductive. If you believe every meeting on your calendar is helping your team move forward, you might want to read this before scheduling the next one.
A few years ago, I joined a fast-growing tech startup. Collaboration was their mantra. On my first week, I had seventeen meetings. Yes, seventeen! By Friday, I had barely touched my actual work. One meeting was about a product launch. Another was a “quick sync” that turned into a 90-minute debate. There was even a recurring meeting with no agenda where we mostly discussed what we might talk about next time. It wasn’t long before I realized: we were meeting to talk about work, not actually doing the work. Sound familiar?
Meetings aren’t inherently bad. In fact, they can be powerful tools particularly when they’re intentional. They work best when they drive decisions that require multiple perspectives, align teams on priorities or changes, foster collaboration and creativity, build relationships (especially in one-on-one settings), and address urgent issues that can’t wait. But they fail when they lack a clear purpose or agenda, include too many people who don’t need to be there, drag on without decisions or action items, or replace actual work instead of enabling it.
I once consulted for a marketing agency that held a weekly “status update” meeting with twelve people. Most attendees didn’t speak. After tracking time spent versus outcomes, we discovered they were losing over forty hours a month on meetings that could’ve been emails. The fix? They restructured the format, reduced frequency, and introduced a shared dashboard for updates. As a result, productivity soared, and so did morale.
And then there are meetings that serve no real business purpose at all. At a regional university, the dean insisted that faculty and part-time instructors attend every meeting, even when most topics had nothing to do with their work. Why? Because the dean wanted the media covering his meetings to capture a packed room for the cameras. These sessions wasted hours of academic staff time, created resentment, and added zero value to the institution’s goals. It’s a perfect example of how meetings can become a vanity exercise rather than a productivity tool.
While team meetings often get the spotlight, one-on-one meetings are where the real magic happens. While these can act as short status updates, their main purpose is to help foster trust among team members. A well-run one-on-one can uncover hidden roadblocks, nurture growth, and strengthen alignment between managers and team members. At a previous role, my manager always began with: “What’s on your mind today?” That simple question opened the door to honest conversations about workload, career goals, or even personal challenges. It changed how I lead my own teams.
Running effective meetings isn’t complicated, but it requires discipline. Every meeting should open with unfinished business from the previous session and updates on action items assigned earlier. This ensures continuity and accountability. Attendees should take turns writing the meeting minutes as rotating responsibility keeps everyone engaged and prevents burnout. Nowadays, AI does that even more efficiently. Those minutes should always be shared immediately after the meeting and archived for easy future reference. Why? Because people get rotated within organizations for many reasons, and documented decisions prevent confusion and wasted time.
A regional bank I worked with had constant leadership changes and team rotations. Before implementing structured meeting minutes, every new manager spent weeks trying to piece together past decisions. After introducing a system where each meeting started with pending items, updates were tracked, and minutes were archived in a shared folder, onboarding became seamless. New managers could review past decisions in minutes instead of days. Accountability improved, and projects stopped stalling every time someone changed roles.
As Patrick Lencioni famously said: “Bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations.” Effective meetings, on the other hand, are the foundation of clarity, trust, and progress. Always have a clear agenda. If you don’t know why you’re meeting, don’t. Respect time by starting and ending on schedule. Invite only those who need to be there; more isn’t always merrier. Encourage participation because meetings aren’t monologues. And most importantly follow up, because a meeting without action is just talk. One company I worked with introduced a quarterly meeting audit. Teams reviewed recurring meetings and asked: Is this still serving a purpose? If not, it was either restructured or removed. The result? Fewer meetings, better outcomes.
Unproductive meetings waste both time and money. Globally, billions are lost every year because teams spend hours talking without moving forward. So next time you’re tempted to send that invite, ask yourself: Is this meeting necessary? Or is there a better way to communicate? Let’s make meetings meaningful again.
What’s your experience with meetings? Have you seen great practices—or horror stories? Share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s start a conversation about how we can make meetings productive, purposeful, and worth everyone’s time.
#Leadership #Productivity #WorkplaceCulture #BusinessStrategy #EmployeeEngagement