5 Great Tips From Victor Lipman
For More Efficient, Effective Meetings :
1) Spend twice as much time on
the agenda as you normally would. One problem commonly afflicting meetings is unclear
objectives. If you’re not exactly sure what you’re trying to
accomplish, you can be sure it won’t happen quickly. As meeting
organizer, it’s your responsibility to have clarity about objectives.
Consult with another team member if you need to; a little extra time at the
front end will save more time at the back end.
2) Spend twice as much time on the attendee list as you normally
would. Ask yourself, carefully: Do all of these people reallyneed to attend? Or could some of
them just receive a brief email summary or quick call afterward? If
you can reduce a half-hour meeting list by, say, four people whose presence
isn’t essential, that’s two hours of productive time effortlessly returned to
the company.
3) Schedule the meeting for the
half the time you originally intended to. Meetings are like accordions – they stretch
naturally to fill the allotted space. If you schedule a meeting for an
hour, you’ll probably take the whole time, even if a fair amount consists of
amiable, random off-topic conversation. In all likelihood if you
schedule that same meeting for 30 minutes, you’ll do what you need to in the
tighter time period. When I was in the corporate world I routinely halved
meeting times and was seldom disappointed. Try two-hour meetings at one
hour, one hour meetings at 30 minutes, and 30 minute meetings at
15. My strong suspicion is they’ll work out fine.
4) Don’t start 1 second late.
Way too much time is wasted on late arrivals. It used to make me
crazy that certain people would be habitually late, thus regularly wasting some
5 to 10 minutes for the entire group – and penalizing the punctual. The
simple solution? Don’t wait for latecomers. Start the insant
you’re scheduled to. Soon enough people will get the idea… no one likes
to be embarrassed by straggling in during the middle of a cogent
discussion. Do this a few times and you’ll develop a reputation for
promptness. I knew numerous (though not enough) managers who had super-punctual
reputations and they were respected for it.
5) Consider – if it’s
appropriate for your business needs – holding a stand-up meeting.
There’s actually intriguing research showing that stand-up meetings can be more efficient. In one
study, groups that were standing took roughly one-third less time to make
decisions than those who were seated… with no loss in the quality of
decisions. For logistical reasons, stand-up meetings aren’t always
practical, but they’re worth considering.
We recognize that some of these suggestions – optimizing agendas
and attendee lists – do require the meeting organizer to spend
added time on the front end, but I’m confident the organizational math is
sound:
Time saved
in a meeting = productive time returned to the company… and a little more time
spent by one at the front end is preferable to a lot more time spent by many at
the back end.
MSE Meeting Rooms London is here to
help you when you need help, when you need it fast and when you need to save!
Come visit our website and book your venue for your upcoming meeting!
No comments:
Post a Comment