Meetings: Necessary…or a Waste of Time?
Office Politics January 21st, 2009A friend of mine just started an office job after working in a different industry and noted how many meetings he was suddenly involved in. Many of the meetings did not have an agenda, and there were not clear actions afterwards. He felt that sometimes the communication could have been done by email. Are all your meetings necessary? or are some a waste of time?
A recent NY Times article notes that many meetings are not productive (even when they are discussing workplace productivity!). Here are some tips from the article to make your meetings more successful.
- Have an agenda and set clear objectives for the meeting. What do you need to achieve in this timeframe?
- Think about opportunity costs for the meeting. How many people do you really need? Do you need all those senior managers?
Here are some more tips:
- Have stand-up meetings as they don’t go on for so long
- Minute action points and follow up – ensure there is a lasting benefit from the meeting
- Know the difference between a meeting and a workshop, and when just an email communication will suffice
How effective are your meetings?
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January 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 am
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