Meetings have the potential to be a big time-suck, particularly if the agenda and action items are not clearly defined beforehand. According to a study by the San Francisco Chronicle, employees consider "too many meetings" to be the "biggest distraction and waste of time presented by the workplace."
I wouldn't advocate for the complete abolition of meetings because the fact of the matter is that they're a necessary part of business. What I would advocate for, however, is a second look at how businesses conduct meetings. How many meetings are necessary to accomplish your goals? Are you structuring your meetings in a way that is both time-efficient and effective? Are the action items clear at the end of each meeting?
If you don't have good answers to these questions, I highly recommend reading an article from Fast Company on “how to hold a productive meeting in seven minutes or less.” This article provides some best practices for running efficient and effective meetings.
