Productive Meetings
Rita says the average person spends at least 10 hours a week in meetings. If you were to poll the attendees you may be surprised to find the majority feel that the time they spent in the meeting could have been more productive. This unproductive meeting time can be broken down to approximately 5 hours week, or 250 hours a year or 6 weeks of lost productivity.
If you are like Rita and Harry then you have experienced or participated in an unproductive meeting. Rita would like to share some tips to help you make your future meeting more productive:
1. Invite attendees who have a vested interest and will benefit from solving the problem
2. If after attending the first meeting you find that your input or expertise is not required explain this to your boss. Ask your boss if you should continue to attend this meeting. It may be more productive for you to work on current assignments.
3. Prepare or request a meeting agenda. It should include topics for discussion, and goals within a specific time frame. Make sure the agenda is received by all attendees in advance of the meeting. Use the agenda to move through the meeting to ensure it will be productive.
4. Don’t allow the meeting attendee to become side tracked by a topic that is being discussed and is not a topic on the agenda. This can be accomplished by saying, “That’s a great point let’s table that for the next meeting agenda, or send me an email and we can have some additional discussions about that.” Another suggestion could be, “Why don’t we talk off line after the meeting I’m interested in hearing more about what you have to say.”
5. Decide what your plan of action is or next steps are after each point discussed on the agenda. Decided who will take ownership, how it will be handled and when it should be completed.
6. Make it a point to start the meeting on time and end the meeting on time. This will set establish everyone’s expectations and they will honor future meetings following this format.
7. Have a note taker prepare and circulate minutes for you. Remember you can’t have good meeting follow up without good notes and record keeping.
8. Before you schedule a meeting ask yourself is there another way to get what you need accomplished through an email or phone call.
Following these tips will increase your productivity and reduce the number of unproductive meeting hours.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm @twitter.com/bloggingbetty
Rita and Harry you are both very wise. Thanks for this insightful reminder for some and new stuff for others regarding the neverending battle with unproductive meetings. They can be a waste of time and for many time is like money, marriage maintenance,and more opportunities to have fun.
I would also like to add the suggestion to record the meeting on a digital recorder and make an mp3 to send all attendees as the minutes. Learn how to do it one time and save time by recording what you did for referral later. (Just in case you have a “boomer moment”.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I like your idea Blog Coach, having a digital recording of the meeting makes the minutes Boomer Moment Proof. Unless we forgot where we left the recording, or neglected to listen to it.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
haha, Loved the comic, very wise. Might have given me some ideas to get out of my next long meeting
Great Post - and even better use of media. Thank you.