Time wasted on unnecessary or poorly prepared meetings is very expensive. Just try to calculate the hourly earnings of all participants and you may be surprised. Moreover, we are not counting all the opportunities the participants could use during the time of the meeting... If you really need to call a meeting, avoid the following errors.
1. Do not meet in a conference room
A good meeting solves a problem, sets a new direction or comes with new action plans. To accomplish this, do not meet at a boring place where nothing will inspire your creativity. Go directly to the source of the problem and see it in reality.
2. Do not think in half-hourly intervals
Do not schedule a meeting eg. from 9:00 to 9:30 when you need only ten minutes. Always plan the length of the meeting in advance depending on what you need to solve and inform all the participants how long the meeting will take.
3. Do not call meetings to share information
Information can be shared before the meeting at any time via any communication channel. People should go to the meetings being already familiar with necessary information to make decisions.
4. Do not let anybody think aloud
If someone asks you to let him think out loud, stop him. Make it clear that you expect your people to come to meetings with specific proposals according to the advance shared information.
5. Do not delay start of the meeting because of personal conversations
The fact that someone comes to the meeting soon and you start to talk does not mean that others who come on time will have to wait for you to start the meeting. Always start on time.
6. Do not forget to specify responsibilities
For the decisions made at the meeting to be realized, it must be clearly specified what should be done, who should do it and when. Everyone should know what he/she is responsible for.
7. Do not write long summaries
The meeting summaries should include only the agreed decisions together with the information who and until when is responsible for their implementation. Writing what you discussed without any solution makes no sense. Do not create the impression that general discussions are productive.
8. Do not meer with the whole team
Only team members who are responsible for the issues being solved should participate in the meetings. Others would only waste their time.
9. Do not meet in the effort to weld your team together
Your team does not need meetings to work together well. Relations between the team members are being created through daily work on a common goal.
-kk-