However that need not be the case. Most management work happens in teams and groups. Used effectively companies can get more work done due to meetings ! 3M has a great site and content on meetings here.
On Yahoo Finance management guru Ram Charan lists some great ways to make a meeting productive and effective. As he says:
But the truth is that meetings are an invaluable business tool. You simply cannot lead effectively without them. It's up to you to ensure that they serve their intended purpose of synchronizing people's activities and moving the organization forward in the right direction.
The ability to use meetings to bring people together for a particular output is a critical part of managing your organization's social system -- one of the most important know-hows a leader must have.
Most leaders are great at communicating either one on one or communicating with large groups. However the real test of leadership is leading a small group. So how do you rate yourself on meeting facilitation?
I may be wrong, but I guess one of the most important reasons why people hate meetings is that the decisions and learnings that one encounters during the course of the meeting are not acted upon. The reason why they are seen as a waste of time is not only because of the time that gets killed during the meeting but also because the learnings are not utilized outside the meetings. The attitude is "What's the point? We discover so much but we can't seem to get it implemented!" :(
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