Danish Veterinary and Food Administration: Fewer and better meetings

The challenge

After a restructure the agency had to deliver its work with fewer resources – and meetings were an obvious place to save time. Staff described the problem themselves:

‘The default in Outlook is half an hour, and I often think that's too long. […] People just book half an hour or an hour.’

– Staff member at the agency, before the program

‘There are often far too many people around the table.’

– Staff member at the agency, before the program

Our approach

• Survey: A large questionnaire identified where the meeting problems lay in each department.
• Toolkit: Four articles for managers on ground rules for good meetings, facilitation, closing meetings and online meetings.
• Embedding: Departments followed up in workshops, team meetings and follow-up sessions using action learning in meeting leadership.

The result

Each department has reported its results, so the effect is documented: meetings are more effective, and in many places they now take less time than before. A side effect was that leadership itself came onto the agenda.