Have a Meeting ? Make It Productive !

In my seminars on management development and leadership, I usually include a segment on how to conduct productive meetings. I have always been of the opinion that most official and obligatory meetings requiring the presence of three or more people are much like lawsuits and general surgery. Both should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

After teaching this subject to over 2,500 middle and senior level managers, I have been impressed by the commonality of complaints about poorly-run meetings. I have been equally impressed with the commonality of praises regarding well-run meetings. Here are some complaints that managers have stated: 1.The meeting was too long; 2. Subject matter irrelevant to me;

3. Someone monopolised the discussion with minutiae;

4. Nothing was accomplished;

5. Too much time was spent on unimportant business;

6. here was no logical reason to have this meeting other than because we always have this meeting at the same time every day/week/month;

7. Most subjects discussed could have been handled without a meeting;

8. There were no doughnuts or coffee.

On the other side, here are some positive comments the managers had about some meetings they had attended:

1.The chairman and the participants were well prepared;

2. The chairman stuck to the agenda;

3. It was short and to the point;

4. The meeting had a specific purpose and its objective was achieved;

5. Only topics of interest and relevance to the participants were discussed;

6. The meeting was called only when something had to be discussed;

7. There were plenty of doughnuts, coffee and soda available.

With such uncommon amount of agreement among the participants, it became relatively easy to offer some solutions for conducting more productive meetings, if you must have them. It only requires a chair who does not see this meeting as an ego boost or to meet just for the sake of meeting. Read More

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