Reduce time but keep group working as a team through a combination of alternatives.
COST: Managers may choose to partially reduce cost by having one-on-ones or progress reports weekly for standard information sharing. Then hold monthly meeting for collaborative and participative work.
BENEFIT: The manager would hold a group meeting once a month to get the benefits of working as a team. The monthly meeting ensures everyone on the staff becomes acquainted and understands the responsibilities of each other.
IMPROVEMENT: The monthly meeting should be an improvement on past meetings as it would be a shorter one that is focused on group discussion and problem solving rather than giving updates on all projects.
It is important to understand the cost verses benefit of having weekly staff meetings, especially if they have become mostly status briefings. The above list of alternatives and ways to improve their use may help maintain or enhance the business benefit received from weekly meetings. Try some of the alternatives and suggest the ones that work for your organization to others to help reduce costs and increase effective use of staff time.
Remember to hold meetings only when there is real and important group work to be done. To know when to hold a meeting, first write the meeting purpose and develop a list of what is to be accomplished. If the list requires group collaboration and participation, then a meeting should be held to accomplish the purpose. If the list does not lean toward group idea sharing, problem-solving and individuals volunteering for outside work responsibilities, then consider an alternative way to accomplish the same purpose.
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