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Important Facts About Meetings
We’ve all been in them. We’ve all had good ones and unbearably boring ones. We’ve been participants in ones where amazing things were accomplished. And we’ve left ones shaking our heads and wondering why we were even there.
Meetings can either be the bane of existence to an employee or group or a valuable tool in meeting goals and objectives.
Never Leave a Meeting Feeling Good
Do your meetings result in everyone feeling good after they leave? Does very little get done in your meetings? If so, your meetings function like most, and they are probably worthless!
Most often leaders are concerned with there being too many meetings, or meetings being too long, or some other wrong measurement. I would like to suggest that you change your measurement systems. For example, a good leading indicator that something important is being discussed is conflict. Other indicators of good meetings are the number of decisions made and the number of people held accountable for decisions made at the prior meetings. These are real indicators that your meetings are worthwhile. If you have a really good meeting, then everyone leaves feeling uncomfortable because there is so much more to be done, and they have a stake in it!
There are 7 critical factors that when managed correctly result in great meetings and top results for organizations:
How to Conduct a Successful Meeting
Every manager needs to master the skill of chairing a meeting. Participants will leave a meeting chaired effectively with a sense of accomplishment and a clear understanding of future directions and tasks. If you want to chair successful meetings, follow these important steps.
1. Start on time.
When you wait for latecomers, you penalize those who have arrived on time-and you inadvertently reward those who come late. Before long, everyone will arrive late. So how do you get people to your meetings on time? By starting on time! Always.
Effective Meeting Facilitation – From WOMBAT to Effective
“Oh no! Another meeting! That’s 3 hours of my life I’ll never see again!” If you’ve ever felt this way or suspect you’ve evoked this response in others, read on. A new acronym has popped up that defines many meetings. Many people are now referring to meetings as a WOMBAT (Waste Of Money, Brains And Time). In fact, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp., 34% of respondents classified most meetings as a “complete waste of time”.
One can assume that meeting facilitators do not initiate meetings with the intention of wasting everyone’s money, brains and time. But, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The good intentions of meetings include:
Meetings Don’t Have to Be a Waste of Time – 6 Tips to Make Them More Productive
” I don’t feel like doing any work today, I think I’ll call a meeting. “
This is the popular view of meetings, a waste of time, where all that happens is that people gather together in stuffy, crowded rooms and lose the will to live.
But they don’t have to be this way.