How Much Did That Discussion Cost?
November 28, 2007 – 8:41 pmThere’s a cool little tool called Meeting Miser that has been making the blogging rounds. I first saw it on Download Squad, then Lifehacker, then Raven’s Brain, and they all raised good points about it as a fun little tool.
I love this tool and have used this concept for years. Not just as a fun tool, but as a very serious tool. Meetings seem like a way of life in some companies, and you can easily spend tons of time in them, but you always have to ask yourself the cost, especially if you are holding those meetings to solicit information to help you make decisions.
I was once involved with a series of meetings that centered around studying and deciding whether or not to make a business decision that was going to cost our company around $10,000. That’s not a small investment and worth talking about. Still, after a few weeks it was out of hand. We were including too many people and agonizing over the decision too much. I brought the problem to the attention of my boss (the ultimate decision-maker). The conversation was something like this:
“Hey, we’re spending a lot of time on this.”
“I know, I need to make a decision, we need to think a bit more about it I think.”
“Well, think fast, you’ve spent $5,000 on this decision already.”
That got his instant attention. It was a rude jolt, to be sure, but it was a needed one, and well-received. He asked what I was talking about. I pointed out the number of hours in meetings, pointed to the average cost per person’s time that we use for pricing project resources for the people in those meetings, did a simple math calculation, and poof. $5,000, give or take a few hundred. That ended the meetings right there. He made the call the next day based on the information he had.
Being cautious and risk-averse is a reasonable approach to doing business, but never be so cautious you overrun your costs just trying to make a decision. Keep your meeting costs in mind. Calculate the estimated cost of a meeting BEFORE you call the meeting, then decide if what you’ll be accomplishing in that meeting is worth the cost.
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