Care to make a wager?
I’ll bet that you’d agree that your organization – and maybe you – have too many meetings, and I’ll double my wager that most of those meetings are a waste of time.
Why am I so confident? Because research shows that too often, meetings are poorly planned and badly run.
Guidance
Here is some advice – culled from a recent the Post-it Brand workplace study – for making meetings more productive.
- Keep your overall goals in mind when planning a meeting.
- Have clear objectives for the meeting.
- State them in writing and pass them out to attendees prior to the meeting to help keep it on track.
- Encourage participants to bring a pen and paper, or mobile device/computer, to record important facts. This helps with retaining key information. Plus, it also helps fight off daydreaming.
- Meetings should be kept to a manageable size.
- Encourage participation.
- End with a plan. Have action items and let attendees know which items they are responsible for and provide them with a deadline.
