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What can we do if our meetings almost always begin late because the participants don’t show up on time?

This challenge is common and extremely wasteful.  Think of all the meetings you go to that last at least an hour.  Starting 10 minutes late for a one-hour meeting is flushing 16.7% of the meeting time right down the drain.  Imagine that amount of time wasted across the organization over the course of a year.  Yikes!  This adds up to a major opportunity.

• Voice your concern.  When everyone eventually does show up, begin the meeting by saying something like, “I’d like to spend a few moments talking about a concern I have.  We regularly start our meetings late.  This bothers me because it seems so wasteful.  How do others feel about this? You may hear silence for a few moments, but once someone else chimes in, trust me your concerns will be overwhelmingly supported.
• Start the meeting on time even if everyone’s not present.  If the leader is late, somebody else (i.e. YOU) should take the lead and start the meeting.  You may figure out that there are things you can productively work on that do not require the missing people to be present.  If you start, and they eventually do show up; make it their problem to get themselves back up to speed.  This approach shows them they are not indispensable.
• Implement the “Five minute rule.” If after five minutes anyone who is essential to the meeting is not present, get up and leave.  This is especially effective if the person who is late is the one who called the meeting.  Make it the late-comer’s problem to reconvene the meeting.  This can be a little dangerous if the boss called the meeting and is late.  One way to lessen the risk is to decide as a group (one possible result of following action idea #1) whether you want to have a five minute rule.  That way, if the group uses the rule, it won’t come as a surprise.