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What Workers are REALLY Thinking About in Meetings

Written by: Vicki Kunkel

Article Overview: The next time you worry that your meeting presentation might not be detailed enough, or you want to make sure you include all of the relevant data, or you want to re-do that PowerPoint slide one last time, you might want to reconsider. People apparently are not hanging on your every word. A study completed by Mindjet Business Meetings shows that people are so bored with traditional presentations and the same old meeting format that they are thinking about, well, almost anything but the topic at hand. A synopsis of the study can be foundin this article.

What Workers are REALLY Thinking About in Meetings

The next time you worry that your meeting presentation might not be detailed enough, or you want to make sure you include all of the relevant data, or you want to re-do that PowerPoint slide one last time, you might want to reconsider.

People apparently are not hanging on your every word.

A study completed by Mindjet Business Meetings shows that people are so bored with traditional presentations and the same old meeting format that they are thinking about, well, almost anything but the topic at hand.

Bored executives find their minds turn to sex, sports and their colleagues’ personal lives when work meetings become unproductive, accordin to a study by The Mindjet Business Meetings. The 2004 study also found that most workers believed the quality of meetings was getting worse and was a drain on their productivity.

The study found that 23 per cent of employees thought about the personal lives of colleagues attending the same meeting, while 15 per cent thought about shopping and 20 per cent about sex. However, food also proved to be a mental stimulant in meeting rooms, with 21 per cent of the respondents admitting they thought about it. Work was not seen as a creative environment with 63 per cent stating that ideas came from outside the office.

“People are bored to death with traditional meeting formats and the poor productivity that they generate,” said Peter Bragg, UK Country Manager for Mindjet. “Failure to make meetings more engaging is becoming an increasingly costly exercise for employers.”

Mindjet asked respondents whether they felt meetings were getting more productive, with 41 per cent agreeing to this, as long as the meetings stayed interesting. However, 34 per cent felt there has been no change in meetings over the past year and only 25 per cent said that meetings were now less productive than before.

When respondents were asked if they could change the way meetings are run at work, 31 per cent said they would find a way to capture the information electronically so that it is put to better use.

The Mindjet Business Meetings Study 2004 questioned 331 office workers from a wide range of industry sectors including IT, public sector, financial services, manufacturing and telecommunications.

Other key findings from the survey were:· 32 per cent lose or forget more than 50 per cent of their ideas· 28 per cent would improve the structure of a meeting· 11 per cent are either in the bath or in bed when they get an idea· 22 per cent found meetings to be a big waste of time.

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  Making Meetings Matter
  Economic Significance of Meetings and Events

Article Tags: accordin, business meetings, colleagues, costly exercise, creative environment, failure, last time, meeting rooms, personal lives, poor productivity, relevant data, respondents, sex sports, shopping, stimulant, traditional presentations, uk country manager, work meetings



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