Wednesday, March 13, 2013
6 Things You Need to Know About Leading a Meeting
Inc.com: There's nothing worse than a bad meeting. You sit there grinding your teeth wondering why in the world you have to waste your time sitting through something that never should have happened in the first place.
The fact that we've all been there, sometimes weekly or even daily, doesn't make it any less annoying. It doesn't even begin to take the edge off that nagging thought that you could be making so much better use of your time.
via Lifehacker
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4 comments:
I think it is interesting and should be noted that meetings should take place in the afternoon and not early morning. I can absolutely agree. If people are not awake and don't give their full input what is the point of a meeting? I found it interesting that it was not noted that everyone should have a copy of what is being presented.(I don't know if that is assumed or?) I think this is an extremely important strategy because if people are passing around a copy of something the entire meeting efficiency is greatly hindered. It also noted that some management teams were double booked for meetings.This is absolutely ridiculousness often times managers are the ones running the meetings and if they aren't there what is to say that a goal is ultimately accomplished?
Pointless meetings lead to an aversion to having meetings. An aversion to having meetings makes having a meeting pointless. It's a vicious cycle that if those running the meeting don't see and head off early, could be disastrous for an organization. The article is absolutely correct in saying that nobody likes sitting through an entire meeting and feeling like there was no point to it or that they got nothing out of it. It is also important that there is a clear goal that should be accomplished by the group during a meeting. While working on group projects for classes it frustrates me to no end when we say we are going to have a meeting but don't really know what we need or want to accomplish during it.
I've definitely been in a situation where I've had to attend meetings that are going to have a bad atmosphere for one reason or another. And, if the people hosting those meetings had read this article, things would have been a lot better. I think one of the biggest things this article points out that can improve meeting atmosphere, and make things more productive, is to have them in the afternoon. Morning and evening meetings are an absolute waste of everyone's time. Because there will always be a few people who are really tired, or too hyped up on their morning caffeine, or really hungry for dinner in the evening. Frankly, morning meetings are the worst. No one is ever in a good mood for a morning meeting. The other thing is to have follow-up information from meetings. Even for small meetings where it can seem overkill, I'd personally rather know what the next step is, or what was achieved from the meeting, than wonder if there was any impact or reason for it at all.
I think the time of day you have a meeting is an often overlooked part of the meeting itself. In order for the meeting to be truly effective and mean something, everyone there should be awake with their full attention and have something to contribute to the group to move the project forward in a positive manner. If you have sleepy or inattentive people, that may lead to leaving things not addressed because someone may have forgotten or what have you. In order to reduce that, I think planning the time of day to schedule your meeting is essential.
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