Meetings are Terrible but Necessary

The article below focuses on the negative side of meetings and from personal experience I do have to agree with a lot of the things said, but I do however believe meetings are necessary to have and give people a clearer picture of a plan that would not be possible to display over email. The article speaks about meetings as if there is some other way to get the information across but does not bring any alternatives to the table. To sum the article up they say the following: Meetings are distractions, Meetings wander off topic, Meetings have unnecessary people, Meetings multiply time spent, Meetings aren't work, and there is a The time cost of meetings. To me all of these things are in some way true to happen in meetings, but if you are focused on the correct goal some of these can easily be avoided. I know at my organization meetings do not go off topic because we are all busy enough and do not have time get off topic. At my last organization this was very true though. Meetings would end up as different discussions and this was because my boss had a laid back personality, and also goes on accidental tangents. To me its up to the leader to stay focused and they guide how the meeting goes. In my current organization if you are at a meeting it is because they expect you to either have to gain some knowledge from this for your own project or contribute your knowledge to some else. I personally leave every meeting with knowledge that benefits me, and the other people have contributed to my role and position. Some employees may feel that they did not have to be there because they got nothing new out of it but in actuality they had information for others. The article says that meetings multiple time spent which in my organization is not true. My meetings are for important projects and reports and having a 30 minute meeting with crucial people saves me a lot of time rather then emailing or calling these people and waiting for a response that may or may not answer my questions. In a meeting I ensure the people I need to be there are and can efficiently answer my questions that I need to know which saves me a lot of time. The article says meetings are not work which is true and goes into detail about why this is bad. I completely disagree with most of this. Yes this is not work, but its the time to display the work that one person has been doing to management so they understand, or its where management is explaining steps for projects or goals of the organization. This is indeed not work but a crucial part to any organization and would cause chaos with out these. To me meetings are crucial and necessary to any organization and I believe that the author of this article has had unfocused management which has stemmed the views they have about meetings.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244499