Yet again I venture into the land of meetings improvement. Meetings are the ultimate double-edged sword of the business world. When you need them, they’re vital; when you don’t run them right, they’re a useless drain of time and resources. The worst is the wasted meeting- the one you go to, have goals for, but nothing useful gets done. Here’s three simple things to avoid wasting meetings:
- Have an itemized plan of things to accomplish and talk about in the meeting. Don’t leave without at least talking about each item constructively.
- Create a parking lot. Use it. When things get off track, push things (tactfully) onto the parking lot. Keep on target.
- Never end a meeting with hanging tasks. If tasks or action items come out of your meeting, make certain to review who is responsible for carrying out that task and when it is due. This is the worst kind of dangling meeting participle- everyone agrees that something must be done, but no one owns the item when they leave, no due date is due, etc, and thus nothing gets done. The result? The meeting is a waste.
Follow these simple points, and you’ll never waste another meeting.
