By KEN KARPAY

As a consultant to executives in organizations large and small, public and private, for-profit and not-for-profit, I’ve attended thousands of meetings. And I’m repeatedly amazed at how otherwise talented people fail to facilitate meetings that effectively use executives’ time and talents.

As outsiders, management consultants are ideally suited to help remedy this situation by facilitating and teaching clients how to run meetings that avoid what I call the “pointless, endless meeting syndrome” (PEMS).

This condition exists in organizations where executives routinely and repeatedly meet, fail to clearly state goals, haphazardly identify relevant facts, and consequently make poor decisions that damage their organization.

The best evidence that PEMS has invaded an organization is when executives leave a meeting and say to themselves or their peers, “What was the purpose of that meeting?” Fortunate are the times when someone makes that statement during a gathering of executives, not afterwards. When the opportunity arises, consultants should model that behavior for clients, so they can play that role comfortably themselves in the future.

A few years ago, as I began an engagement with a new client, I attended their weekly executive team meeting. There I observed a presentation by the CFO, one of the more powerful people in the organization, which included a detailed proposal for a revised technology budget. Because his proposal required what for this company was a relatively small financial outlay, few of the other executives in the room paid him any attention.

But as the CFO droned on, they grew impatient. Being a newcomer, I figured I could take advantage of my unique situation. “Excuse me,” I said as I interrupted the CFO, “but what is the purpose of this presentation? 

All eyes were upon me. I had dared to say the king might not be wearing clothes.

The CFO responded that he wanted the executive team to approve the technology budget. The budget, he added, was necessary to fully implement a new process for fulfilling customers’ orders. “The new process,” he added, “will save us lots of money.”

The rest of the executive team was on alert now. An altered fulfillment process?! This was not something anyone else thought was wise, even with the potential cost savings.

If that question—“what is the purpose of this presentation”—had not been asked, the budget would probably have been approved. And the executives would have continued to wonder why so much time had been wasted. But within a matter of weeks, as the new fulfillment process began to be established, the executive team would have revisited the presentation once they realized the consequence of their decision. In the meantime, time and resources would have been wasted.

Another sign that PEMS is prevalent in an organization is when employees or executives leave a meeting and complain, “Nothing ever gets decided around here.”

Consultants often have an opportunity to converse with executives and other employees of organizations. With a little probing, you can check for another telltale sign of PEMS: a midlevel manager complaining, “All we ever do around here is meet. ”Pointless, endless meetings occur when leaders fail to define the purpose of a gathering, do not allow a full airing of relevant facts, and then “realize” that a decision cannot be made. Another meeting is scheduled to deliberate further, driving subordinates crazy.

Left unchecked, PEMS will undermine the effectiveness of entire management teams and cost organizations millions of dollars. For example, in February 2002, Allfirst Bank in Baltimore, a subsidiary of global banking conglomerate Allied Irish Bank, disclosed that it had experienced losses of almost $700 million as a result of the activity of one of its currency traders.

In short order the trader was arrested, and the bank’s executive leadership resigned. Baltimore Sun daily newspaper business reporter Bill Atkinson, and others, investigated the cause of the bank’s troubles. Their investigation asked how a 37-year-old currency trader could rack up nearly $700 million in trading losses over several years without anyone noticing.

The reporters explained that the alleged rogue trader had been left unsupervised for years, in keeping with the mode of management that pervaded the organization. In fact, they explained, the Allfirst culture was one best characterized by “ideas languishing in endless meetings. The ailing culture hobbled Allfirst. Managers’ priorities and inexperience left the bank vulnerable.”

Allfirst Bank is certainly not the only organization where failure was predestined by pointless meetings among executives. But the banking debacle highlights a national management malady.

Based on my very conservative assumption that every U.S. white-collar worker sits through at least one hour-long wasted meeting a week, PEMS conservatively represents a multibillion dollar drain on our economy that frustrates otherwise truly dedicated professionals and executives. As consultants diagnose the ills of corporations and nonprofit organizations, we can help ensure smooth internal operations by first looking for signs of PEMS and then teaching insiders how to eradicate it.

GROWing a Solution

The best antidote I’ve found to the pointless, endless meeting syndrome is based on the four step GROW process developed by Sir John Whitmore, founder of Inner Game Ltd., a coaching organization for professional athletes and executives. GROW can be applied in almost any setting: large or small groups; corporate or nonprofit organizations. Whitmore describes the GROW process in the context of one-on-one executive coaching sessions.

While I’ve used it that way successfully, I’ve also adapted and expanded Whitmore’s methodology to be tremendously effective in group settings. It is a powerful decision-making process for groups because it provides a focused structure to any deliberation.

The GROW process sounds simple, but it is not simplistic. It involves four steps that consultants can use for their own internal deliberations, for client consultations, and as a tool that can be taught to clients for their own internal uses.

STEP #1 Establish the Goal

In day-to-day meetings among executives, there is a tendency to talk “around” problems, without stating the purpose of a discussion. Sometimes this occurs because it is not clear who is leading a meeting or because of poor direction provided by the meeting leader.

The first step to halting pointless meetings is to ask at any time during a meeting, What’s the goal of this discussion? That one question will bring the discussion into focus. Often groups have difficulty agreeing on a goal. This may indicate that a goal has not been clearly articulated. It may also point to unresolved conflict on a topic. Without precisely stated goals, executives and others will become frustrated as they see their time wasted.

Getting a group to agree on the goal of a discussion is one of the best ways to end the pointless, endless meeting syndrome.

If you are attending a meeting where the discussion seems to be pointless, ask to clarify the goal being discussed. Sometimes you will need to write the goal on a whiteboard for all to see. Then edit the goal to achieve consensus. Watch what happens next. The process of developing consensus on a goal will empower the group by joining together for a common purpose.

Meeting goals can vary tremendously in scope, from straightforward decisions (“decide whether to launch our new product line next year”) to more extensive discussions (“develop a marketing budget for launch of the new product line next year”).The greater the precision in topic goals, the more effective those discussions will be.

STEP #2 Identify the Realities

A goal can be achieved if all the hurdles to achieving it are identified and rectified. The next step is to list all the realities surrounding a topic, including available resources (“our marketing budget is 20% less than last year”), staffing (“we now share our support staff with another department”), legal (“new laws prohibit the following tactics . . .”), human resources (“the West Coast sales team is being reorganized”).

By listing these realities, clients should begin to see every hurdle that stands in the way of achieving their goal. The more complete the list of hurdles is, the more likely your clients are to develop a strategy that successfully resolves every possible problem.

In working with clients, I have found that breaking these realities into three categories— strengths, weaknesses, and unproven assumptions —ultimately ensures that discussion is focused on specific outcomes.

Strengths and weaknesses can be easily catalogued. But watch for any reality that you identify as a strength or weakness that is actually an unproven assumption. Sometimes critical “facts” are little more than information that we assume, or hope, to be true. Failing to ensure that an assumption is correct can be dangerous and sometimes fatal for an organization.

For example, the developers of the now defunct Internet store Webvan assumed that once consumers tried the online grocery store, they would leave their old-fashioned store for the virtual food-shopping experience. The company’s business plan was based on customer conversions that were not properly tested and updated. This error was one of several that led to the company’s fast demise.

STEP #3 List All the Options

The third step is to list various options available, based on the previous two steps. Do not worry if the options either contradict or overlap each other.

Not long ago, during a meeting with a client who was wrestling with a recurring staff shortage, a group of company executives identified three options to pursue: Develop an extensive grassroots recruitment campaign, interview two staffing agencies, and direct the company’s financial analyst to assess the impact of hiring or not hiring additional staff.

Fully implementing all three options would have been counterproductive. But identifying the options focused the executives’ discussion and allowed them ultimately to decide that the first option—a grassroots recruitment effort in a targeted area—was the best way to resolve both their immediate and long-term staffing shortage.

Once options are listed, review the list of realities to see that each is properly accounted for in the options. If the goal is properly stated and the realities identified, the most viable options should become clear and sometimes very obvious. If that does not occur, further review of the goal may be necessary.

STEP #4 Decide Who Will Do What When

At this point, review the options and decide which strategy to pursue, how it will be implemented, and who will be responsible for it. Subsequent meetings provide the opportunity to review those pending actions.

Would this methodology have avoided the huge loss at Allfirst, Webvan, or other problem organizations? Not necessarily. But the GROW methodology, if properly taught and implemented, can cure any organization of the pointless, endless meetings that frustrate employees and prevent action and innovation.

KEN KARPAY(ken@karpaydiem.com; www.karpaydiem.com) is president of Karpay Diem LLC and works with executives developing and implementing business and organizational strategies. His clients include leaders of Fortune 500 companies, privately held businesses, and nonprofit organizations.