Meetings Bloody Meetings

Making the Most of Your Meetings

Meeting … meetings … seemingly endless (and often unproductive) meetings! They’re one of the most common time and money wasters existing in business today – frequently thought of as “necessary evils.” But they don’t have to be! If your organization espouses the importance of maximizing its resources – which most do – it’s imperative that you and your fellow leaders walk that talk. One of the best places to start is effective meeting management. Here are four ideas that should help:

Does it make $en$e to have a meeting? Don’t meet if there’s a more cost-effective way to achieve your objective. Ask others to help you develop a list of ways to accomplish tasks and goals with minimal need for group meetings. Just for fun: Calculate the cost of your last meeting (salaries plus other expenses) and see if you got your money’s worth. Would you repeat that same meeting if its cost was coming out of YOUR pocket?

Supply all participants with a written agenda prior to each meeting. Make sure the agenda includes: meeting objectives; issues to be discussed; start/end times and location; who will be attending; how participants should prepare … and what they should bring.

Manage the meeting. Establish ground rules up front – including a list of “do” and “don’t” meeting behaviors. Then, keep the group on track, follow the ground rules, and strictly adhere to the time frames. If you manage the process effectively, the results will usually take care of themselves.

End all meetings with a short review of the results. Discuss what was accomplished – and what, if anything, needs to be done after the meeting.

Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.