The Problem: Far too many meetings!
The Solution: Bill people internally for meeting time.
As anyone who has worked pretty much anywhere, ever, will know, most organisations hold way too many meetings. These are often both boring and pointless, and prevent actual work being done (indeed, arguably the single biggest problem with moving to a 4-day week is not that work couldn't be done, but that there wouldn’t be enough time for meetings).
I propose that each team in an organisation be allocated 2 hours a week for meetings, but after that they are billed hourly out of their team’s budget, at an inflated hourly rate for each individual involved. Such a solution would still allow some time for meetings that need to be held, but would create a significant disincentive to hold wasteful meetings.
To make the proposal more effective, any team that stuck to their 2 hours a week would be allowed 2 extra hours off each week, for example leaving early on a Friday or coming in later on a Monday morning.
Sometimes meetings are important, but rarely for more than 2 hours a week – if major meetings are required above the 2 hours they should be worth paying for.
More importantly, it’s about creating a culture where people become more efficient – pick up the phone to confirm a small detail rather than sending endless emails, for example, would hopefully be another outcome of a shift in culture.
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