Common challenges and how to overcome them

Dustin Moskovitz and Jason Womack, writing for TheBuildNetwork, cited a Psychology Today study that said 70 percent of employees say status update meetings don't help them get any work done. They suggest that the way to cure ineffective meetings is to manage meeting time rigorously, including setting days of the week when meetings are not allowed. One company calls it "No Meeting Wednesday."

I agree that status meetings often get a bad reputation for being time wasters. It's a common challenge. The meeting becomes a time waster in two ways:

• Holding the meeting when it's not needed

• The meeting lasts too long

However, declaring a day of the week when meetings cannot be held seems like you're trading off one problem for another. For example, what if the company has a huge presentation to a client on Thursday and needs a last minute meeting on Wednesday to review details? Does the company risk losing a piece of business because of "No Meeting Wednesday...