---

Guest post by: Paul Puckridge Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

"A meeting is an event where minutes

are taken and hours wasted."

James T. Kirk

Somebody recently said to me, "I used to dread every second Thursday at work. That's because it signalled the torture of our staff progress meetings". They went on to say, "Those two hours each fortnight were physically challenging and mentally draining. If I wasn't nodding off , I would be pinching my own skin under the desk in an effort to look alert".

This person when on; "At least I wasn't as bad as one of my co-workers John. He had the habit of continuously looking at his watch during the meetings, impervious to the stares of the manager". Is this a sort of meeting that you are used to? Have you ever been to a meeting that started late, finished late or failed to accomplish anything of substance? This question I have to ask is, are these types of meetings really effective? Who is getting the most out of this sort of meeting, or are you and your colleagues wasting your time even having a meeting?

While many workplace meetings are productive and useful, some are a complete waste of resources and time. I believe that's possible to slash hundreds of hours a year from your organisation's meeting time by thinking differently about your meetings.

Poorly organised and ill-prepared meetings can bring out the yawns in the best of us. In addition to this, they are costly in both monetary and time terms. If you really think you need a meeting, or you have been invited to attend a meeting then ask yourself (or the person requesting the meeting) a couple of questions first.

1. Has a specific purpose or goal been set for the meeting?

2. Is there an agenda and will it be distributed ahead of time?

3. Will only the people who need to be attending be there?

4. Could the same information be covered in an e-mail, memo, or telephone conference call instead?

3 Some basic meeting rules

#1: Always start a meeting on time. Unless you're waiting for a senior manager, make sure the meeting starts at the scheduled time.

#2: A good chairperson will use the agenda to direct and guide the meeting. The role of the chairperson is to ensure that the agenda items are discussed in order of importance and that no single agenda point goes over time. This way you will guarantee your meeting will finish on time.

#3: Create a "parking lot". Before your meeting starts, create a parking lot! A parking lot is a flipchart placed in the corner of the room. Whenever someone raises an issue which is not part of the agenda, ‘park' the idea for later. By parking any ideas that are not on the agenda you will guarantee the meeting will not go off on tangent or lose traction.

At the end of the meeting whatever is on the ‘parking lot' can be used to create an agenda for the next meeting.

Related Articles

  How to Hold Motivational Meetings
  How To Run Effective One to Ones
  “How to Transform Your Time Spent in Business Meetings From Time Wasted to Time Well Spent”
  How To Create A Reputation for Honesty as a Leader-Part 2
  Today’s remark – next steps?
  The Power of Productive Team Meetings
  Can you have high accountability if you don't have consequences?
  Motivate Your Sales Team by Making Your Meetings STICK!
  How to Increase Your Team\'s Performance and Profitability Through Effective Meetings
  The Secrets To Managing Ineffective Meetings - 9 Proven Tips Which Make You Fail
  How to Learn From The Best
  An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Problem Fixing
  Master Your Game: Meeting Effectiveness
  “The Top Ten Reasons Strategic Planning Meetings Fail, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  What have I learned in 6 months of management? Part 4
  Managers Build Trust And Respect By Letting Go
  How to Make “Time” for Timely Sales Meetings
  Make Meetings Work - Use An Agenda!
  Negativity can push you to greatness
  Entrepreneurs -Meetings – Make Them Effective And Profitable

Related Forum Posts

Great Meeting locations
Re: Should a start-up outsource early?
Moving from Home Office to Real Office
Re: How do you overcome the fear of rejection while selling?
Removing Toxix People

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Marketing Blogs - What You Should Know

Why Use an Advertising Agency

How to Build a Relationship with Your List

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.