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Item Upon - Developing Efficient Meetings
It was the ancient Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus, who said, "nothing endures but change." That is certainly just as true today as it was in the time of Heraclitus, over 2,500 years ago. Change is all around us. In nature, in our personal lives, at work, everything is changing all the time. Sometimes the changes are subtle and we barely notice them, other times they hit us like a freight train.Inevitable ChangeMany of us have never heard of William C. "Billy" Durant, but he was one of the true innovative business thinkers in the early 20th century. He was the head of the Durant-Dort Carriage Co., the largest producer of horse drawn vehicles in t
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2)
All too often, people experience work that does not provide any enjoyment at all. Each day they wake and in those seconds as they become conscious, they realize it's another dreary day at their workplace. It's like a ball and chain on their life, eight or ten hours, simply wasting their lives away.Every day.Of course they have other things to look forward to - those hours they spend with friends or family outside their awful workplace, And yet, the cloud hanging over them persists, sadly. And the hours grow into days. And the days into weeks, months and years. before they know it, their work life ends with so little to show for it.Truth
The first two responses were…
“Meetings are looooooooooong,” and “Meetings are BOW-ring (this workshop was actually held in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas – thus the Texas twang.)”
Those two responses almost always come up when I ask the question. Others that also come up a lot are: Wastes of time, non-productive, confrontational, inefficient, repetitive, and a number of other negative descriptions. Every once in a while, I get a response like positive, informative, or necessary, but usually the other participants gang-up against the person very quickly.
Most people believe that meetings are necessary evils, and in many cases, they are. But one of the most important things we can remember about meetings is to NOT have one unless the meeting is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Nothing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. Some one of my first pieces of advice to people who want to make meetings more effective is to have fewer of them.
About five years ago, I made this statement in a class, and a young lady in the front row raised her hand and said, “That sounds really good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings.” I was intrigued, so I asked her to tell me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day. After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2)
Predicting the future of business can be a challenging task, from novices to experts, CEO’s, Investment bankers, analysts, professors and investors all have tried it in the past. While some have been successful in doing it, many have fallen flat on their faces. I have compiled a few colossal failures and some that were just mere hiccups, for the experts and the companies they represent.1.“The concept is interesting and well- formed, but in order to earn better than a “C”, the idea must be feasible.” A Yale university management professor in response to Fred smith’s paper proposing overnight delivery service. (Smith founded FedEx corp.)2.“There
Most people believe that meetings are necessary evils, and in many cases, they are. But one of the most important things we can remember about meetings is to NOT have one unless the meeting is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Nothing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. Some one of my first pieces of advice to people who want to make meetings more effective is to have fewer of them.
About five years ago, I made this statement in a class, and a young lady in the front row raised her hand and said, “That sounds really good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings.” I was intrigued, so I asked her to tell me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day. After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2)
While it is tempting to just leap into a new business because of it’s exciting possibilities, a few key planning points will vastly increase your chances of success. These steps aren’t difficult, but they’re easy to skip. Many businesses ultimately depend on a slim profit margin, so planning can really help the process. Too many restaurant patrons, for instance, assume that running a restaurant seems fun because of the many restaurants they have visited, but restaurants have an especially high failure rate.One of the key factors in planning a business model is simply researching the demand for your product. If you are great at making kitty blankete one unless the meeting is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Nothing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. Some one of my first pieces of advice to people who want to make meetings more effective is to have fewer of them.
About five years ago, I made this statement in a class, and a young lady in the front row raised her hand and said, “That sounds really good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings.” I was intrigued, so I asked her to tell me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day. After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2)
The hotel industry is synonymous with hospitality, and this one quality can set an establishment apart from its competition. This ensures the generous reception and entertainment of guests.Hoteliers can develop a strategic partnership with top recruiting agencies. The recruiting agencies serve the needs of all kinds of hotels, including luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. Hotel recruitment is aimed at hiring employees in the areas of finance, management, operations, and strategic planning. Hotel recruiting agencies have highly qualified and integrity-oriented consultants who know the key players in the hotel industry. As a result, they are able to rel me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day. After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2)
I purchased a video-conferencing unit to connect my office visually with clients all over the world. To use the equipment I need a high-speed telephone line. ‘No problem,’ I thought, ‘I’ll just call the telephone company.’The telephone company referred me to the ISDN Department for high-speed access. The ISDN Department referred me to an outside vendor who faxed me an application form from the telephone company!I filled out the forms and faxed them back to the vendor. He faxed them back to the ISDN Department, who then called me to arrange an appointment. But the appointment is only to ‘lay the line’. A second appointment is needed after that tis is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.
The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.
1) Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the “chasing of rabbits,” and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.
2) Follow the Agenda: This sounds very elementary, but you’d be surprised by the number of people who take the time to create an agenda, and then totally disregard the agenda during the meeting.
3) Limit the Agenda to Three Points or Less: Ask yourself, “What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?” Limit the agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren’t really that important anyway, so why waste everyone’s time?
4) Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient, and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting. You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of time you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently.
5) Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don’t Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will “phase out” (especially if it is a looooong and BOW-ring meeting.) If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot. Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, “Good, let’s hear from someone else.” If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, “I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add.” Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn’t, then you haven’t embarrassed the person.
Meetings can be a very powerful way to communicate and solve problems. In past workshops that I h
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