Meetings, i.e. discussions at a fixed date, have fallen into disrepute in many companies. Very few employees consider their regular meetings as really useful and as profitable for their work.

How much damage do meetings really cause? Why are meetings that unproductive? And how is it possible to organize better meetings? We show you the benefits of a video call in meetings…

Damages caused by a meeting without a video conferencing system

Actually, such a meeting is a very useful matter where to share information, develop solutions and bring projects to a successful conclusion.

In reality, however, very few meetings are really effective, on the contrary: They cause costs and waste time. A US study showed that meetings generate opportunity costs amounting to 37 billion US dollars annually.

In more than 25 million meetings every day, employees in the US waste their time. If meetings will not be made more efficient in the future, for example by the use of a video conferencing system, those figures will continue to rise.

Already now, the numbers are alarming: The middle management spends 35 percent of the working time in meetings nowadays, the upper management spends as much as 50 percent of total working time in meetings. The most important thing is that executive staff indicates 67 percent of the meetings as failures.

Ineffective meetings without video call – a root cause analysis

The study shows clearly why meetings without video call rarely lead to success: A total of 92 per cent of the participants in addition deal with other things during a meeting. As a result, however, the duration of a meeting is delayed, the concentration capacity of the individual employees decreases, and thus also the density of the information exchange.

The experts classify the lack of involvement of remote employees as another reason for ineffective meetings. For participants of a meeting that are not connected via video conferencing system but via the telephone it is difficult to follow the course.

Since 80 percent of the messages that a person sends are coming from his body language, this important variable is missing in the communication. In addition, meetings often fail due to inadequate planning. Poor preparation and a poor build-up of the meeting reduce its chances of success.

Helpful tips for a successful meeting

We have compiled some helpful tips for you in order to make the next meeting in the company a great success:
1. Plan the meeting to be as compact as possible, never let it last longer than 30 minutes.
2. Process a specific agenda and include it in the presentation material. You will meet real expectations.
3. Obtaining required materials in advance will save time for profitable discussions.
4. Start and close the meeting on time and show this way that you respect the schedule of each individual.
5. Avoid monologues. Include all participants in the meeting.
6. Stay focused and do not allow yourself to be distracted by other things like emails or social networks.
If you want to successfully manage a meeting, whether with or without a video conferencing system, you should always ask: Is this meeting really necessary? Which employees actually have to participate? And: What can I do to make sure my meeting passes by interactively and focusingly?

Our tip:

A video call can raise a meeting to a new level. It is that participants of a meeting with a video conferencing system can concentrate on the discussions demonstrably better in the meeting and are distracted 57% less by other things.

Video calls improve the commitment of the participants, which supports decision-making and increases the productivity of the team.

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