A meeting that is not designed properly wastes everyone's time. When attendees do not know why they are there, the time disappears between discussions that serve no purpose and people quietly asking themselves: why am I here?
How many meetings have you sat through, most of them or all of them, while you were busy on your phone answering emails and messages, playing a game, or scrolling social media? We have all been there. A meeting you had to attend without knowing why you had to attend it.
And the reverse: how many meetings have you organized yourself, trying to steer them toward what you had in mind, while the attendees pulled the room in every direction?
All of it is draining for you, and all of it is a cost, to you, to the company, and to your health.
Do the math on a single meeting. Five people, average salary 25,000 SAR. One hour costs the company about 710 SAR. Make it a weekly meeting and that is 2,840 SAR a month. Now imagine ten meetings like it running across the company: 28,400 SAR every month. That is a new employee's salary, spent on meetings.
So how do you design a meeting properly? Here are some points worth taking into account. Notice that they answer three questions: What? Why? And How?
1. Set a clear objective (What)
If you organize a meeting and the objective is not clear, or you attend one with no clear objective, that is where the problem begins. A clear objective sounds like: "We are meeting to decide next year's budget." Everyone knows they are coming to discuss next year's budget, and they arrive prepared.
But an objective on its own is not enough. Will we approve the budget? Can I add line items? Is it ready and we are only reviewing it? An objective alone does not answer these.
2. Set an expected outcome (Why)
Ask yourself: what is the thing that, if I walk out of this meeting with it, will leave me satisfied? In our example: "We leave with a draft budget so everyone has two days to review it." Now there is an agreed aim. Even if you are only invited to the meeting, you arrive with a picture of where it is heading. But this too is not quite enough for everyone to be on the same page, so one more point remains.
3. Set a mechanism (How)
How will the meeting begin? Who speaks first? Is there anything we need to prepare beforehand? Anything to read first? Is it a presentation or a brainstorm? In our example: everyone arrives with their request form for next year filled in, we go through them one by one and decide whether each line belongs, and we leave with a single draft you have two days to review before it goes to the CEO for approval.
Those three points answer: what is the meeting about, why are we meeting, and how will we run it. And they need to be in the attendees' hands before the meeting starts.
Here is the best part. Often, when you sit down and put this information together in preparation, you discover that the meeting could have been an email. Or the email could have been a phone call. Or that instead of inviting five people, two would do. Or the reverse: what you assumed was a thirty-minute meeting actually needs two hours, or should be split into three meetings, each with an objective that serves the bigger picture.
It has happened to me often. I would attend a meeting and find it adrift. So I built a habit: if I have to attend a meeting, I ask the three questions before it starts. They tell me why we are meeting, and the rest of the room hears them too, so we do not waste our time.
And it is perfectly fine to leave a meeting because you were not prepared, since the meeting was not clear, or because time is up, or because it does not actually concern you.
In the end, do not waste people's time. Respect theirs, and they will respect yours.
How many meetings have you attended where your time was wasted? And what will you do to make it happen less?
I have spent more than 20 years leading technical teams and cutting the waste that quietly builds up around them, in tools, in spend, and in time. If your calendar is full of meetings no one is sure why they are in, you can submit a request and tell me what you are dealing with. No commitment, just an honest conversation.