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33 Comments
- m3mn0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Every time I see or hear about lists involving meetings I can't help but think about this one:
"Are you bored at work? Call a meeting!
You can:
1. see people
2. feel important
3. impress colleagues
4. draw charts
5. form subcommittees
6. and make meaningless recommendations... all on company time!!" - marvinmatthew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18In case it goes down, the Google cache:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:clCIReNX_dEJ:topquicktips.metrolity.com/20655.php+ten+tips+for+effective+meetings&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 - AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13@chriskzoo
"1) Don't let a woman run the meeting"
2) Don't let a misogynist give you advice on how to run meetings. - mrcarxpert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8For the lazy, here's the list:
1) Avoid meetings. Test the importance of a meeting by asking, "What happens without it?" If your answer is, "Nothing," then don't call the meeting.
2) Prepare goals. These are the results you want to obtain by the end of the meeting. Write out your goals before the meetings. They should be so clear, complete, and specific that someone else could use them to lead your meeting. Also, make sure they can be achieved with available people, resources, and time. Specific goals help everyone make efficient toward relevant results.
3) Challenge each goal. Ask, "Is there another way to achieve this?" For example, if you want to distribute information, you may find it more efficient to phone, FAX, mail, e-mail, or visit. Realize that a meeting is a team activity. Save tasks that require a team effort for your meetings.
4) Prepare an agenda. Everyone knows an agenda leads to an effective meeting. Yet, many people "save time" by neglecting to prepare an agenda. A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map. It is guaranteed to take longer and produce fewer results. Note, without an agenda, you risk becoming someone else's helper (see tip #6 below).
5) Inform others. Send the agenda before the meeting. That helps others prepare to work with you in the meeting. Unprepared participants waste your time by preparing for the meeting during the meeting.
6) Assume control. If you find yourself in a meeting without an agenda walk out. If you must stay, prepare an agenda in the meeting. Collect a list of issues, identify the most important, and work on that. When you finish, if time remains, select the next most important issue. Note: you can use a meeting without an agenda to recruit help for your projects.
7) Focus on the issue. Avoid stories, jokes, and unrelated issues. Although entertaining, these waste time, distract focus, and mislead others. Save the fun for social occasions where it will be appreciated.
8) Be selective. Invite only those who can contribute to achieving your goals for the meeting. Crowds of observers and supporters bog down progress in a meeting.
9) Budget time. No one would spend $1000 on a 10¢ pencil, but they often spend 40 employee hours on trivia. Budget time in proportion to the value of the issue. For example, you could say, "I want a decision on this in 10 minutes. That means we'll evaluate it for the next 9 minutes, followed by a vote."
10) Use structured activities in your meetings. These process tools keep you in control while you ensure equitable participation and systematic progress toward results. - pak314, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I see many teams at work (especially marketing) hold "meetings" at lunchtime so they can get the company to pay for their lunch. They waste money on this yet refuse to speed a few hundred dollar for a better monitor so our eyes don't get blury doing coding. Barely half a days pay for the monitor and it would pay for itself in one month of productivity improvements I would guess.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Certified professional facilitator and author Steve Kaye helps groups of people hold effective meetings"
Holy *****! Not only can you actually get certified in holding meetings, but people will pay you to do so? WTF??? - flernk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5One of my favorite quotes of all time:
"It takes a pretty good meeting to beat no meeting at all." - EEMeltonIV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5#11 - Start on time
- marvinmatthew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This a terrific list for leaders. My favorite tip is tip #9:
"9) Budget time. No one would spend $1000 on a 10¢ pencil, but they often spend 40 employee hours on trivia. Budget time in proportion to the value of the issue. For example, you could say, "I want a decision on this in 10 minutes. That means we'll evaluate it for the next 9 minutes, followed by a vote." - vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"None of us is as dumb as all of us."
http://www.despair.com/meetings.html - MrRuggles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I disagree with #1. I schedule most of my meetings to make sure "Something" happens. If "Nothing" happens without the meeting, then that is exactly why I call it.
- damndj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Don't forget to provide plenty of free pizza. That will make any meeting worth attending.
- TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+311) put all cellphones on mute or vibrate.
12) Put the CrackBerries down and pay attention - chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Obviously you've never been in a meeting run by a women. They invariably end with "Does anybody else have anything to add or something they want to talk about?" And this, of course, leads to wasting of a 1/2 hour of time with people talking about ***** that nobody in the meeting cares about like "Oh, my son got braces and we can't believe the price."
- soulcutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the explanation for #1 was just poorly-worded. My interpretation is "if there is no difference in outcome between having a meeting and not having a meeting, don't have a meeting". I still think it's something of a flawed statement, but it makes more sense to me than the way you appear to have interpreted it.
What really gets to me at the office is that meeting rooms are scarce, so people will schedule lots of meetings simply to reserve the space if they need it. And then when they don't need it (which is often), they use the timeslot as a bargaining chip with people who genuinely -do- need it. All that ends up doing is guaranteeing the scarcity AND underutilization of meeting space. Some may be thinking "but less meetings is better!", which I don't dispute at all, however in a company with hundreds of people, two small meeting rooms is just not enough (and that is the perspective I'm coming from) to allow such games to be played with an important resource (space). - danielrh9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Meetings: Where you can at least talk about being productive.
- raydar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is a pretty good article. I would add one though. Require promptness. Nothing is worse than everyone waiting because someone is late for a meeting. Regardless of whether the delay is unavoidable, if everyone isn't there reschedule. If the meeting could be continued without their participation why did they need to attend in the first place? Lateness can easily turn a half hour meeting into an hour or more of wasted time.
- shakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You are absolutely right. At my last job everyone was stuck with 15" CRTs. Upper management had 19" LCDs, but that was just a status symbol. They had no idea that a larger monitor and higher resolution would make everyone more productive.
I just got my current workplace to buy me a 24" LCD, but even that's on the lower end of the scale. Most people working here have three, four, five, or even more programs running at once. Switching between programs is a huge waste of time. Whatever UI designer thought it would be a good idea if some programs were hidden behind other programs should be shot. If I had three 24" monitors I would finally be able to keep the programs I'm working with all visible and I could be way more productive. You can switch between two programs easy enough using alt-tab, but any more than that and it's a real pain. - sv650touring, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Both of the bosses that I have had that held lots of meetings (both men, mind you) actually asked EACH person individually what they had to add at the end of the meeting. This actually pressures everyone to come up with something. That translates to quite a bit of time wasted talking about the exact kind of junk you describe. Most of us hate that. But, to be fair, it isn't just women that do it.
- sv650touring, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Barely half a days pay for a monitor"
You either have a pretty good job or pretty low expectations for a monitor, my friend. - soulcutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll make a wild guess that you've not worked in a largish office environment. You might think that common sense would eliminate the need for such a specialty -- and you'd be right. However, I don't believe common sense is quite so 'common' as I once did (especially when the weirdness of office politics come into play), and therefor I can understand how a person could carve out a niche for themselves in this capacity.
You're shocked? Well I'm shocked that you're shocked :) - Kale, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1....or doughnuts.
Also make sure you leave the leftovers on the meeting room tables to feed the "office gnomes" that clothe themselves with post-it notes and eat leftover doughnuts and coffee from meetings. At nights, they frolic freely through the cubicles in their carefree, simple lives. - gaznet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If only i could digg this another 10 times... one for every tip..
- TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree and disagree...
I get scheduled for so many meetings that if someone needs my input they'll call me at my desk and tell me I "need" to be there, otherwise I have actual work to do. - dudu78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+013) Call in a meeting if productivity goes up by 5%. Set it as a standard for every day. Repeat each time productivity goes up by another 5% (Keep in mind: Productivity does not end with 100%. It can go higher.)
- steveparker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And #3. There isn't always time to challenge everything, just on principle. You're just going to waste everybody's time and you'll burn your karma within 3 meetings.
Also #8. There's no point selecting the "yes-men" by not inviting the guy who needs to sign it off, because he would say "no."
#9 is crap, too. Spending 10 minutes on a "cheap" decision could cost a fortune in the long run. Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it's not important. - hyperreader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice article :)
- metacarter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There's some version of the 80:20 rule operating here. Basically, most of the business gets done by about half way through the meeting. The rest of the meeting is just a waste of time.
- mcwiggin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://www.duggmirror.com -- Doesn't work :-(
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1How did an MFA site make it to Digg front page??
- d3c0yn4m3l355, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1did you ever attend a meeting?
Meetings are usually for expanding your network (which brings in more business), all the other things you describe in a meeting sure happen but are normally put in place to be useful.
Meetings can sure be productive, problem is that some people over-do it, thats where i guess rule number one of this lad comes into action 'is the meeting useful?'. Often can be said, i doubt it. - siggducks, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0link don't work. timeout.
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -13/+31) Don't let a woman run the meeting
Meetings are about one thing - establishing hierarchy within the company. 99% of work can be done through simple employee to employee communication and unless the meeting is a brainstorm meeting, it's basically worthless.
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