Effective Meeting Management 12 Tips to Improve Meeting Productivity

相关的主题文章：

Meetings are the bane of employees in corporate America. Very few will dispute that they are a colossal waste of time. Most will admit to doing other work while in meetings to take advantage of the “down time.” Many managers go from meeting to meeting in a zombie-like daze,nixon watches. What can be done to break this spell and ease the pain? Here are a few tips for making meetings more effective.
1) Only Meet if You Must - If you can accomplish your goal without a meeting don't have one. Why spend the time scheduling something if it’s not necessary?
2) Limit Attendance - The more people in a meeting the longer it tends to take. So, invite only those that need to attend. Additional parties can be included in the distribution of minutes or can be contacted as needed before or after the meeting.
3) Be Prepared – This usually gets a chuckle of disbelief. People can’t imagine finding the time to actually prepare for meetings since all their time is taken up attending them. The fact is that lack of attendee preparation just feeds the insatiable meeting monster. Things don’t get accomplished, so additional ineffective meetings are spawned, and the cycle repeats.
Prepare your schedule a week in advance and block off time, even if it’s ten to fifteen minutes, to prepare for upcoming meetings. It will be time well spent.
4) Send Out an Agenda - If people are to prepare for a meeting, they need to know what it is about. Let them know. Send out an agenda a few days in advance.
5) Arrive on Time – Meetings take up valuable time of multiple people, so they must be important, right? If that’s the case, showing up on time is not only the courteous thing to do, but it also necessary to maximize the time investment of the participants. Oh, and dropping off some of you personal possessions on the conference table to save a seat doesn't count as being on time! You need to be in the chair as well.
6) Start on Time – A nine O’clock start means a nine O’clock start. Facilitators, don’t start a minute later. If you start on time habitually, people will get the message that they must be punctual as well. Don’t repeat things for those that arrive late. No need to penalize the many for the tardiness of an attendee or two. Latecomers can pick up what they missed from someone after the meeting, or from the meeting minutes.
7) Keep to Topic – Facilitation is improved with practice,watches for women. The facilitator must learn to tactfully cut off the ramblers and remain on task. “That’s a very good point John. Can we take that up later or schedule another meeting to discuss it? We really need to get through a couple more items.” People invest their valuable time in meetings,casio watches. The facilitator must ensure that he/she accomplishes what was set out to be accomplished in order to justify the time investment.
8) If it’s Worth Having, It’s Worth Recording - Take minutes. They don’t have to be extravagant. Keep it simple. While it is best to have an experienced minute taker at each meeting, it is typically a luxury, so more often than not, the responsibility falls on the facilitator. It’s not easy for the facilitator to be effective in both roles, but it can be done. Rotating meeting minute responsibilities among attendees for regularly scheduled meetings can ease the burden on the facilitator.
One of the most important things about the minutes is the action items. They must have completion dates and the dates must be honored.
9) No Grandstanding Please! – Some (typically manager types), use meetings to show that they are on top of things. They feel absolutely obligated to pipe up to show that they are the boss. Bosses, there is really no need to do this. These attempts to impress typically backfire and actually demonstrate a lack of knowledge.
Others use valuable meeting time to try to impress the boss. Try to refrain from doing this as well. The meeting is about getting things done, not about brown-nosing. Offer up your opinions when you think they will truly help accomplish something. Spend the rest of the time listening.
10) Be Present – Give your undivided attention to the meeting. Shut off the cell phone. Put away the PDA. The fewer interruptions and the more attention paid, the quicker you can accomplish the meeting objectives and be on your way. This is also the courteous thing to do. You wouldn’t want someone reading e-mail during one of your meetings, would you?
11) Plan Your Week - Plan your week to include time for you own tasks. Block items off on your schedule. People will then need to work around it. If you are attending more than 4 hours of meetings a day, odds are very good that you are not being effective. Don’t let people cram your schedule with meetings.
On occasion, some will disregard your schedule when setting up a meeting. If this is the case, delegate attendance to a surrogate. Go back to the meeting requester and explain that you can not attend. If the meeting can’t be rearranged, a surrogate will usually be an acceptable option.
12) Keep it short - Keep the meeting to an hour or less if at all possible. People just don’t have the attention span to go much longer.
If you execute the suggestions above, you will quickly discover that meetings will no longer be the horror that they have been in the past. Things will actually get accomplished, and interestingly enough, overall time spent in meetings will actually decrease.