I have delivered quite a few training sessions on productive meetings over the last 12 months. I am a big advocate for the short meeting and I consistently state that a meeting should go longer than 20 minutes. I doing this for effect and I later explain that some meetings (only some) can go longer. The key here is that the majority of meetings are just to decide a course of action or ensure that everyone understands a particular issue or situation. Most of the meeting can be done before the meeting participants turn up. Pre- reading is the key. In the meeting raise the issue, allow 5 minute discussion, then vote.
Now that is not how most meetings go. People turn up and haven’t read the relevant information and we waste the next hour reading and discussing issues that people should have raised before the meeting.
I have attached a few articles below which may help you to understand and train people on how to have productive short meetings.
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