5 Steps to Useful Meetings

Posted by Ian McKenzie

Written on July 8, 2009

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog posts by e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

: Image via Wikipedia

Peter Drucker said, “Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better.” Many would think the concept of a useful or productive meeting to be something of an oxymoron. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for an organization to function without having meetings. The trick is to make the most of meeting time.

Here are five ways to optimize meetings:

Make sure the meeting is necessary. Just because there has been a monthly departmental meeting for thirty years doesn’t mean it has to continue for another thirty years. Determine what is being accomplished. Can the frequency be changed? What happens if the meeting is cancelled altogether? Regularly review the effectiveness of any meeting.
Make sure you need to attend. Are you contributing to the meeting? Is it adding value to your function? If you only need to participate in a portion of the meeting, can you leave once that is done? Can you delegate attendance to an assistant or someone else in your area? Don’t just attend because your name is on the list. Evaluate a meeting’s relevance to you.
Work from an agenda. If you want to accomplish something you need a plan. The same is true for meetings. If there is no agenda, don’t attend. The meeting will lack focus and quite possibly drag on.
Stick to the start time. Don’t penalize the punctual by waiting for the late-comers to arrive. If the meeting is to start at 10:00, start at 10:00 sharp. People will soon learn to arrive on time.
Have measurable outcomes. Meetings should produce results. The minutes should show the action, who is responsible, and a deadline for completion.

There may be times when emergencies require discarding these rules, but they should be exceptions. By following these simple steps, you can minimize the impact of meeting time while maximizing productive outcomes.

The Key to Shorter, Better Meetings (blogs.harvardbusiness.org)
Three kinds of meetings (sethgodin.typepad.com)

Tips for holding productive meetings

5 Reasons to Hold Meetings

4 Tips for Running Effective Meetings

Productivity

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.

Comments

I definitely agree. Meetings are sometimes not that important like what you said, “make sure the meeting is necessary”. It would be a lot better if time alloted for the meeting would be used on some productive projects. Time is the main reason why meetings are defied by others.

Comment by Alan on March 21, 2007 @ 3:01 am