Are your meetings productive? Ironically, a vital work collaboration tool can also be a time-waster. Hundreds of hours are spent on meetings every week.
Sessions can also be calculated in Peso value. Depending on the people in the room, the total monetary value can run from thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Why is it that most employees and a few managers are allergic to meetings? They try to shun them. Meetings are avoided like the plague.
With over 30 corporate years of experience, many meetings I attended are time wasters. Some meetings I attended had no clear objectives. Some had no agenda. Some meetings seem to be a repeat of the previous one. There are days that meetings seem like we are listening to a monologue.
Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that meetings are excellent sources of ideas. Great collaboration can be exhibited during meetings. Yes, meetings can be productive provided the following:
– It has a clear written agenda sent before the meeting.
– The meeting is attended only by people who need to be present.
– Any reading materials and presentation decks are sent within 48 hours to participants. Sending reading materials saves time from having to read the deck at the actual meeting.
– If the meeting will be a monologue or announcement, then an email would be better.
– Minutes of meetings are captured and sent to the attendees 24 hours after the meeting.
– The meeting objective is stated before starting the meeting.
– The meeting facilitator keeps discussions back to the agenda.
– You should spend only 1/3 of your working time a week.
So go ahead. Follow the guidelines above and have highly productive and short meetings.
TRAINING LEADERS. TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONS. 