In other words, all but one participant will be bored, all but one mind underused."
- Dale Dauten
That pretty much says it all for my day. Is that cynical? Any tips for how to move meetings along would be greatly appreciated.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
"A meeting moves at the speed of the slowest mind in the room -
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6 comments:
Here's some lame tips for efficient meetings I learned in my corporate lackey years. Slightly helpful if you edit and tailor to your needs:
Purpose
Every meeting must have a purpose. The purpose should be written down for the entire group to understand the direction.
Agenda
A written agenda with a timeline is prepared in advance of every meeting. The group should determine everyone’s role. A Leader, Facilitator, Timekeeper and a Scribe should be assigned.
Code of Conduct
The following guidelines should be used at all meetings.
1. Be prepared.
2. Arrive on time.
3. Only one person speaks at a time. Don’t interrupt.
4. Treat one another with respect.
5. Do not insult or make fun of a person by word, gesture or body language.
6. No side discussion allowed.
7. Be polite.
8. Always speak constructively and positively. Do not be negative.
9. Stick to the topic.
10. Stay alert and pay attention.
Evaluation
Evaluate the effectiveness of the meeting. Review the positives and negatives of the meeting so that they can be improved for the next meeting. Determine the action items for the next meeting.
Recognize/Schedule
Recognize the contributions of everyone who participated in the meeting. Schedule the next meeting time and location.
Clear, concise, and efficient. Nice work. If only everyone felt that the less time spent in unproductive meetings, the better.
I should clarify that it was a cut n' paste job, but the tips do work. The most helpful piece is to "sideline" tangent discussions that have nothing to do with the stated purpose of the meetings.
One colleague calls them "out of field behaviors": comments out of left field that have nothing to do with the topic at hand and increase stress levels instead of positively contributing.
The fun thing is figuring out how to re-direct those comments so they can be productive. Or is it best to just ignore and attempt to focus?
Cynicism loves company:
http://www.despair.com/meetings.html
apparently, considering all the comments generated...
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