For some reason, I have found recently a lot of very useless meetings. Seems that organizations and leaders can't seem to get away from the "staff meeting" with very little productivity. Recently when leaving a meeting one of the other participants said to me, "There is another hour of my life wasted".
I reflected upon this point. If as leaders we feel that meeting are necessary, lets ask the next question.... WHY?
If meetings are not collaborative, thought provoking, and necessary.... Why have them?
Here are two great articles that kind of drive my point home.
The first article titled, Seven Ways to Kill Your Meetings and Unleash Productivity gives the following suggestions:
Here are seven suggestions:
1. Have a limited, focused agenda. Meetings that ramble on or try to tackle too much end up a confusing, unproductive, overlong mess. Don't try to solve all your company's problems at one meeting. Instead, keep it to one theme and leave other topics for another time.
2. Reconsider regularly scheduled meetings. Maybe that regular weekly staff meeting could be a biweekly or monthly meeting, if there aren't so many pressing issues to discuss.
3. Cut the attendee list. Consider carefully who really needs to be at a meeting, and let everyone else skip it. Send them a memo afterwards if they need to be in the loop.
4. Shorten the timeframe. Think hard before scheduling a meeting to run over an hour. Most participants will be completely glazed at that point and won't absorb much more.
5. Use the internet. Instead of assembling everyone at once, which is bound to be inconvenient for some participants, use a platform such as Campfire to collaborate and share views. Many training meetings can be abolished in favor of online-based trainings workers take when it fits their schedule.
6. Send a memo. If the meeting is simply to impart new policies or plans, make a video explaining it, write a post for the company blog or send a good old-fashioned memo.
7. Reinvent your meetings. If workers are snoozing at your meetings, you can learn to make your meetings engaging and useful. There's even a new book, The Culture Game, on how to make meetings productive.
The second article will make you think a little more. It is a great piece by Ken Segall titled, "What I Learned About Great Meetings from Steve Jobs". This article is specific about How to have great meetings and to stick to these guidelines:
How to Have a Great Meeting
1. Throw out the least necessary person at the table
2. Walk out of this meeting if it lasts more than 30 minutes.
3. Do something productive today to make up for the time you spent here.
So if you are leading a organization and you care about your people and your organization and not about yourself, these are great suggestions. Hopefully you read this post and do something productive today to make up for the time that you spent here!
-Jeffrey
