by Bill Shepard
Research shows that ineffective meetings are the #1 timewaster in business today. Managers report spending 40% of their time in meetings, with about 1/3 of that time wasted. That's about six weeks per year of unproductive time. Yet, meetings are vital links in your company's communication process.
With a little pre-planning and control, you can turn your meetings from time wasters into productive, meaningful events. You may want to copy this article and send it to your peers…or your boss…anonymously of course. Here are a few tips:
- Consider alternatives to certain meetings. To disseminate information, perhaps a memo or e-mail will suffice. Think about the cost of putting a group of people in a room in real terms.
- Start and end on time. Sounds easy, but many company cultures resist this. One idea – try starting your meeting at an odd time, say 8:58 or 9:10. Participants will note the odd time and will more likely be prompt. Important: If you set an odd start time, stick to it. Otherwise, you will lose credibility and defeat the purpose.
- When is the best time to hold a meeting? Usually mornings, right after the participants have a chance to organize their day and catch up. To guarantee a short meeting, schedule it just before lunch. Early afternoon tends to be the least productive time for meetings.
- Create an agenda with exact starting times for each topic. This gives you better control during the meeting and you can justify moving on when discussion gets bogged down. You can still be flexible while the meeting is in progress as some issues may take longer than anticipated. But, you have a tool to rely on when people go off on tangents.
- Speaking of the agenda, get copies to everyone well in advance, giving them time to prepare. Include supplementary materials needed for preparation. A major timewaster is having the first 15 minutes of a meeting spent reading stuff people could have read before they arrived
- Start with the most critical action items first while everyone is fresh, working your way down to the least important. If you run long, you can shorten or table your least important topics.
- Stagger attendance selectively. Making someone sit through a long meeting when only part of it is relevant to him or her can cause frustration and resentment. Be respectful of others' time.
- In selected cases, think about putting someone on call for a meeting. Alert the person that he or she may be needed, but allow him or her to continue working unless called in.
- Ever try a stand up meeting? For informational meetings, this is the way to go. No chairs = shorter meetings.
- Keep discussions moving along. When people start to agree and the dialogue becomes repetitive, present the opposite point of view and see if anyone objects. “It seems we all agree we should paint the building purple. Is there anyone who disagrees with this?” Silence will signify agreement and you can move on.
Bill Shepard is Northern Regional Sales Manager for Insyte Consulting.
