Meetings (mostly) are a waste of my time

By Rory Ryan
The Highland County Press

"A meeting moves at the speed of the slowest mind in the room." – Dale A. Dauten.

I might like Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan. His recent comments on business meetings echo something I've said for many years. 

“When you first start, it’s easy to confuse busyness and going to meetings with leadership,” Jordan said last week on a panel of CEOs at the New York Times. "Because what we all find, I’m sure, is there’s no time to ‘work,’ and you confuse going to meetings with the work.”

That's just it. There's no time to work. Why? It's been my professional experience that many of those mid-level managers who are calling most of the meetings are not really doing much – if any – actual work.

I can't count all the hours wasted by sitting in a meeting discussing a budget issue or two – all meetings are related to budget issues – that could have been easily addressed in a phone call or a group email.

One of the telltale signs of a bad meeting is food. If you walk into a conference room and there are donuts or bagels, coffee, juices and soft drinks, you're in for a long meeting. It's even worse when the dimwit who demanded the meeting orders sandwiches around noon. You can kiss productivity goodbye for that entire day. (And of course, there's the around-the-room start to the meeting in which all attendees introduce themselves and provide updates on their business operations.)

According to a Fortune magazine report this week, CEO Jordan's goal in 2026 is "to keep his calendar completely clear every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon – blocking anyone from booking meetings during those hours. While he acknowledges that approach might sound 'crazy' to some executives, he said CEOs are hired to do work only they can do – and that rarely happens when they are trapped in back-to-back meetings."

Exactly.

For those newspaper publishers, editors and advertising managers (the few of us remaining), meetings create another problem: Most of us still have our daily work to finish – long after the 
pointless meeting has ended. 

My staff will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but in the 17 years of owning The Highland County Press, I can't remember calling any meetings. If there is an issue, we address it, solve it, and get back to work.

Years ago, I may have had a reputation for mysteriously leaving boring meetings. I recall a few instances. One time, the company that employed me held a meeting at a suburban Columbus hotel conference room with box lunches for all. After taking just a small bite, I summoned the ghost of "Taxi's" Jim Ignatowski, who once made a sudden restaurant exit by faking food poisoning while asking, "What's in the veal?"

Rather than listen to yet another boring meeting, I headed for the hotel bar. I timed my return perfectly, as everyone was packing up and headed for the doors.

When asked what happened to me, I just said "food poison." Who could argue with that?

Rather than calling time-consuming meetings, I gave my employers – all of them over more than 50 years of gainful employment – what really mattered: Profits. That's likely why I've never been fired from a job in my life (though I've been tempted to fire myself).

According to the Fortune article, "At JPMorgan Chase, CEO Jamie Dimon has taken a more blunt approach. In his annual letter to shareholders, he urged employees to rethink whether meetings are worth having at all. 'Here’s another example of what slows us down: meetings. Kill meetings,' he wrote. 'But when they do happen, they have to start on time and end on time – and someone’s got to lead them. There should also be a purpose to every meeting and always a follow-up list.'

“And if you have an iPad in front of me and it looks like you’re reading your email or getting notifications, I'll tell you to close the damn thing. It’s disrespectful.”

I agree.

Years ago when I served as a college trustee, I attended a meeting in Columbus with Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Roderick Chu as guest speaker. He talked briefly and acknowledged that "a meeting is a group of people sitting in a room admiring a problem." That was my lone take-away from that long-ago meeting. 

As an LLC, we are required to have an annual meeting. Ours is coming soon, as the board members always get together around Christmas for the meeting. 

It always goes as follows:

• A call to order.

• Any old business? No.

• Any new business? No.

• Motion and vote to adjourn.

Meeting over. Let's eat.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press, Highland County's only locally owned and operated newspaper.