Most meetings and presentations at the office are uninspiring or unproductive.
This is because meetings or presentations fail to foster a sense of teamwork and collaborative thinking. Or, so it could be concluded from the research Sharp let take place amongst office employees in Europe.
Sharp kept the research as a result of the introduction of the new generation Big Pad touch screens. The results show that nearly one in ten employees have fallen asleep during a presentation at work (9%) and that a third of employees have witnessed others falling asleep (34%). Ten per cent of employees have admitted to concocting a story to get out of a boring meeting. A third (34%) of the respondents became preoccupied elsewhere in his or her thoughts a quarter of the way to halfway through the presentation. Over ten per cent of those questioned even zoned out for nearly the entire presentation (i.e. 75 to 100% of it).
Boring meetings are a waste of time
Most of those surveyed (86%) spent a number of hours a week in meetings, though the consensus was that they are mostly a waste of time. Merely 16% described meetings as 'inspiring', while 75% say they are more productive back at their desk.
The top three peeves respondents have during presentations include:
- Talks and discussions that go on for too long (55%)
- A boring speaker (48%)
- Uninspiring content (43%)
The research also shows that less than half (42%) of those surveyed consider meetings as a collaborative team effort; 57% think that one person too many is doing all the talking, all the time. More than half (58%), however, think that meetings would run better if it were a team effort. A fifth of employees (21%) indicated wanting to make remarks, yet never received an opportunity to speak in this regard. Of all those surveyed, 17% said they were averse to presentations due to a lack of opportunity to ask questions. Remarkably, however, only a quarter of them (27%) are trained to lead meetings.
Tools & key resources
The study shows that time management and presentation training play a crucial role in improving meetings and presentations. Furthermore, tools & key resources can make a huge difference.
