Happy Friday

There is a funny phenomenon that happens for me, so maybe it does for you too—the busier I get, the more inspired I get. It's like a cruel joke where I get excited to do something when I haven't got the time to deal with it.

I'm adjusting to a few things at once, and also planning a neighborhood party to celebrate harvesting honey from my bees. My mind is spinning, and new ideas keep popping in that I have to make a note of and move on. Thankfully, writing this newsletter is an excuse to get one of those ideas and spend a few minutes on it.

Let's celebrate this Friday morning with some math.

I say regularly that facilitation is one of the most essential skills to develop as a leader, so let's see if the math supports my claim by following along with this example.

First, let's look at your calendar for next week and count the number of dysfunctional meetings. These are meetings that don't achieve their purpose or accomplish anything for you. Meetings whose result is another meeting are a great example.

Next, count the number of attendees in those meetings and the length of those meetings.

So we have meetings and how many folks are in that meeting, let's do some maths. Use an hourly rate of $52/hr and calculate the cost of the meeting.

Meeting 1 - 10 people - 1 hour - $520

Meeting 2 - 7 people - 30 minutes - $182

Meeting 3 - 8 people - 1 hour - $416

Meeting 4 - 10 people - 1 hour - $520

Meeting 5 - 2 person (There are 3 of these 1:1s that just are missing the mark) - 30 minutes - $52 ($260)

The cost for dysfunctional meetings for one week is: $1898.

Now, this number is meant to be quick to get to and a ballpark figure. You can, of course, be more precise if you'd like, but it won't change the point. If this is a normal week, you can use this to forecast the cost of meetings in a month or over the year.

So, for this individual and these meetings, a year of this would be something like $91,104 in wasted time.

I'll bet more than a few of you are reading that feeling like that number is too low for how bad some of these meetings are.

The next question is, how much is it worth to fix your bad meetings by investing in facilitation skills?

If you want to nerd out a little more, I made a basic spreadsheet to try this yourself. Just make a copy and see what happens!

Here's my weekly update for August 22nd, 2025...

🗒️ How To Make Great Teams Quit

Everyone wants great teams, but did you know that they'll quit if you aren't careful?

In this article you'll learn what drives great teams to new jobs and how you can stop it.

Click here to read more

Enjoy,

Ryan Latta

PS: If you'd like some advice on how to learn to be a better facilitator or would like me to teach you or folks in your group, schedule a call (It doesn't cost anything).