The British make better use of time in meetings than their French and German
counterparts, new research claims.
The study focused on the meeting habits of business people in Germany,
France and the UK, and found that the most productive meetings involved high
levels of collaborative sharing of documents and visual information.
The survey, Efficiency of Business Meetings, was conducted by research
consultancy Dynamic Markets on behalf of online communications company, WebEx.
It involved interviewing executives from 303 companies, all with more than 100
staff.
When asked what value meetings have in driving productivity, UK business
managers rated viewing documents together as the greatest benefit.
Other key benefits included being able to judge body language and facial
expressions, socialising after the meeting and meeting new people for the first
time.
French and German managers both rated being able to see facial expression as
the key benefits of a meeting.
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Cherry Taylor, research director at Dynamic Markets, said the research
indicates a more sophisticated approach to meetings among UK business people.
"Instead of presenting and reviewing data, greater productivity is
being achieved by having everyone’s eyes on the same page working towards a
common goal in a meeting," she said.
