By Dan Shaw
What does it take to hold effective meetings, meetings that people will enjoy rather than dread? Let’s look first at the reasons people say they hate meetings, then we can easily identify how to avoid those pitfalls.
Reasons People Hate Meetings
The number one reason (according to GiveMore.com's 2012 survey):
·
Meeting leaders
allow attendees to ramble and repeat comments and thoughts.
Other complaints about meetings that were
listed as the most frustrating were:- Starts late, goes off agenda, finishes late
- No specific action items or takeaway points
- No clear purpose or objective
- Not inspiring or motivating
- Not organized and there is no agenda
- Too long
- Repeating information for late arrivals
- Weak presenter who is unprepared, monotone, or overly redundant
- Boring and provides no new or interesting information
These seem perfectly
reasonable objections to bad meetings.
Here’s how to avoid these pitfalls:
- Identify a clear purpose
- Identify specific action items or takeaway points
- Distribute an agenda in advance of the meeting to give people time to prepare
- Do not attend (or require attendance at) meetings unless new info will be conveyed
- Limit duration of meetings to 90 minutes. If a meeting must run two hours, allow a 10 minute break
- Start on time, appoint a timekeeper
- Appoint a recorder
- Do not repeat info for late arrivals
- Stay on agenda; appoint a monitor
- Choose skilled presenters
- Finish on time
Agenda sets time limits.
The agenda should specify
time allotted to each topic. Because if not times are specified, it gives the
mis-impression that everything is equally important.
Create a visual record.
If everyone in the room can
see the minutes being recorded, this solves several problems at once. It
minimizes repetition…
For more info on Running
effective meetings, agendas, and visual records see:
© 2013 DanShaw.com
