According to a recent study conducted by The University of Missouri there is a way to make your meetings shorter without impacting on the quality of the decisions.

The answer?

Take the chairs away. The researchers compared the results from 111 meetings around a specific problem and found that the seated meetings lasted 34% longer. What’s more there was no difference in the decision making outcomes of the group.

In fact, among the standing meeting participants they expressed a greater satisfaction with their meetings.

This study can be found at:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1D6103BF931A15755C0A96F958260

Some of the reasons that a stand up meeting is shorter might be:

- The sheer novelty of doing this

- You do not become too comfortable

- There is some physical motivation to quicken the meeting

- And also according to the Speed Thinking principles a better decision is often made quickly anyway.

Imagine the possibility of freeing up one third of your time. It has to be worth a try!

Ken Hudson