KC Cooper

Are Meetings Making YOU Crazy?

At least once in your career, you’ve probably walked out of a meeting thinking, “Well, there’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back!” If you are like most people in the business world, you attend meetings as part of your daily life. Most company managers have anywhere from 9-12 meetings in an average week, and many meetings can be 2 hours or longer. This means that the total time spent in meetings each week might equal or exceed the time not spent in meetings. And we wonder why we never have enough time to get the work done! While some meetings can’t be avoided, you can help make them more productive and satisfying whether you are in charge or a participant.

What Makes A Successful Meeting? A successful meeting meets three broad goals:

• It has clear objectives that are met during the meeting.
• The outcome of the meeting is satisfactory to the participants (meets their expectations).
• The time spent in the meeting is the minimum needed to address the issues.

When Should You Meet? The first step in weaning yourself from ineffective meetings is to make sure that those on your schedule have at least one clear objective from the following list.

While some meetings can't be avoided, you can help make them more productive and satisfying whether you are in charge or a participant.

• To explain something once to be sure everyone involved hears the same information. This also allows for feedback, reactions, and input that may lead to improvements.
• To assign tasks so that all the participants can be clear about their own and others’ responsibilities and how they interconnect.
• To report on progress and to identify and resolve outstanding issues that impede forward progress.
• To define or solve a problem that requires input from several people. Sometimes two or more heads are better than one.
• To gain support or reach consensus on an idea from those who will be affected by the decision. Again, you may get valuable feedback that enhances the original concept.
• To train staff on new protocols or the use of new equipment or procedures.
• To build morale and celebrate achievement. People require more than money to be satisfied in their careers. A sense of purpose, accomplishment, and teamwork are all valued, and it’s important to acknowledge individual or team success in a group setting.

So When Shouldn’t You Meet? You’ve determined that your reason for meeting fits at least one of the criteria outlined—but before you go clogging up the calendar, put your decision through a second screening process. You shouldn’t meet if:

• You’re not prepared. You don’t have the information needed to spur discussion or reach decision, you’ve not prepared an agenda, or key participants aren’t available to attend.
• You don’t have enough time to do the topic justice.
• You can handle the issue with a short phone conversation.
• You can write a memo or an e-mail that will work just as well. If this would be a “tell you” meeting and would not require feedback, just stating the decision or procedure in writing is often as effective as a meeting.
• Your cost is out of proportion to the result.

Time is valuable, and a room full of people checking their watches and tapping their toes because you’re disorganized or the time is not ripe for a meeting is unproductive and unprofitable. So, be careful before you schedule a meeting. Sometimes, impromptu meetings are just as effective.

One manager I know has standing meetings—literally: he gathers his staff near their cubicles and holds a 10-minute meeting. It can be this short because it focuses on a single item that can be resolved quickly and because people are motivated to wrap things up so they can sit down. Parts 2 and 3 of this article, in upcoming editions of The White Report, will cover meeting structures and agendas, and how to handle difficult participants.

KC Cooper is the public involvement manager for JD White.
Email KC now to learn how JD White can help with your public involvement and public relations projects.

This article was originally published in the White Report, on June 2006.