30-Minute Standard Timing: Cutting Project Meetings in Half

Munich’s Siemens project teams in 2016 faced thirteen recurring meetings every month, nearly all with random start and end times that overlapped or drifted late. Siemens shifted every recurring meeting-regardless of organizer or topic-to exactly thirty minutes, always beginning at the half-hour mark. This meant anyone could move between meetings without idle waiting, and meetings that couldn’t finish on time were scheduled for the next cycle, never to spill over. Siemens teams logged seven fewer meetings each month, with one standardized half-hour for each, and the sixty-eight minutes once lost to overspill appeared back on their calendars.