We all despise going to meetings, it's really counterproductive in the eyes of most people. Harvard Business School published a study that show that around seventy one percent of senior management considered meetings to be a waste of time and effort, As per studies in the US alone companies waste around thirty seven billion USD conducting meetings.

The purpose of meetings can be from Project discussion meetings to annual objectives meetings. It could be a meeting arranged by human resources departments or training scheduled to increase employee competency

Make The Meeting More Inviting than Interrogating:

We have seen the integration of natural elements into workplaces, Modern Offices stress a lot on the workplace being more inviting to employees from gaming consoles to swimming pools. Zen has become an important part of workplaces, everyone wants to work in a free and independent manner.

Millennials are starkly different to baby boomers in their stance towards work-life balance, they prefer freedom and doing work at their pace.

Changes in Furniture Make Meetings More Productive:

The First impression is what makes the greatest difference in attitudes of modern millennials. They tend to create and stick to early perceptions on stringently and staunchly than baby boomers. Your meeting rooms physical surroundings and furniture make for a huge first impressions.

Still Today in most Offices the Wall Street Boardroom Style is used, the intimidating damp physical surroundings with King Arthur’s era’s oval or rectangle tables and roll chairs does not make for an inviting environment. It’s more of an intimidating nature, and millennials are getting more and more rebellious of such meeting rooms. More and More office staff have complained about meeting rooms in the US than any other room in workplaces.

Ditch A Single Room and the Furniture:

Startups have had a healthy influence upon American Corporate Culture, as cross location and cross nationality working style has given birth to the Digital Workspace. Now more and more businesses are taking advantage of globalization and how the internet has connected the world.

Many major technology brands have started providing Hi Dimension Video Conferencing Software and Devices.

A majority of such companies are based in the Gulf, especially UAE as they market their products to a massive market in the Middle East and Asia like Logitech Rally Dubai and Logitech MEA.

Apple and other technology driven companies are replacing meeting rooms with meeting spaces. Open spaces where there are just a few bean bags and a whiteboard with projectors.

Video Conferencing comes into play in such setups as its easy plug n play hardware connected with smart phones via applications or laptops.

Keep Meetings to 15 Minutes:

Modern Businesses are cut throat so meetings are a luxury ill afforded by most businesses. Keep the limit of your meetings to 15 minutes or less. Agendas have become much more complex as short meetings mean that setting priorities has become important.

Not every decision needs to be discussed in meetings, most teams resolve those issues through video conferences.

It All Starts From the Top:

Regardless of any change in any business it's a trickledown effect starting from C suite executives all the way down to Team Leads and Supervisors. So any productive or counterproductive measure depends on you.