management
How to run meetings that really work
OFTEN the typical business
meeting involving three or more people is a total waste of time. It's
unproductive and chews up valuable time that could be spent on
meaningful work.
A
typical scenario is that attendees arrive late, more than 15 minutes
are wasted on small talk, and pairs of people around the table hold
their own private discussions.
Wasting millions
Although
often meetings are an essential part of conducting an efficient
business, unproductive meetings are wasting millions of dollars in lost
time and meaningless chatter across America.
In
small as much as in mid-size and large companies, a meeting is often a
diversion in an otherwise busy day that achieves little of substance and
results only in the postponement of decisions and action.
Surveys show
that half of all business meetings are considered a waste of time by
those who take part.It
does not have to be that way. A little work put into the preparation of
a meeting can go a long way in helping to make it more productive.
Check out the tips below
Steps you can take to ensure your meetings are more effective
- Consider whether you really need to have a meeting. If the objective of the meeting is simply to convey information, consider other ways of passing it on, such as email, an office memorandum, or a notice on the bulletin board.
- Make sure the people who attend the meeting are those who are involved in the issues being discussed. Each attendee needs to have a relevant role to play.
- Designate a person to run the meeting. Without someone to take charge of the session and keep the discussion on track, the meeting is almost certain to go nowhere.
- Before the meeting, prepare an agenda outlining what will be discussed. During the meeting, make sure the discussions follow the agenda. If other issues arise, put them on the agenda for another meeting. Give each attendee a copy of the agenda in advance so they can think about the points to be discussed.
- Set the meeting length in advance. Letting participants know how long the meeting will last – and sticking to it – enables them to schedule their day. If people can talk for as long as they like on a subject, you can be sure they will.
- Ensure the meeting reaches decisions on actions to be taken. Before the meeting ends, you should have made specific assignments that can be evaluated at the next meeting.
- Take notes of the discussion and distribute them after the meeting. At the next meeting, it will be important to refer to the notes to check on who had to do what.
- By preparing and handling the meeting in the right way, you can avoid people leaving the meeting mumbling, “Maybe now I can get some work done.” If you ran the meeting right, they would have got some work done.
- Check out our specially selected books on meetings below.