Let's declare war on

meetings-time wasting, poorly run, unnecessary

meetings that none of us feels should be required as part

of our work lives. Some of us have even left the world of

corporate bureaucracy to escape the endless schedule of

meetings that seem longer than necessary and accomplish

less than intended. But meetings cannot and should not be

completely eliminated even in a small company, so let's

talk about how to spend the time and effort wisely.

I attended a worldwide

conference of nearly a thousand people brought together

to review and revise the policies and procedures of the

organization. A committee of a thousand can barely agree

on anything and each word and sentence got intensely

debated. At the end of a ten-day period, the participants

were exhausted and hardly knew what they were voting on

next. They just wanted to get through and go home.

Perhaps it was a very democratic process because every

delegate had a chance to be heard, but the quality of the

effort had noticeably deteriorated by the end of the

conference.

First of all, all meetings

need to have a goal or objective. It sounds elementary,

but if you can't think of a desired outcome of the

meeting, then why meet at all? There are plenty of good

reasons to meet, including communicating information,

solving problems, learning a new skill, etc. But if you

cannot easily identify one or more of these reasons,

don't move past this stage of planning. Writing down the

goals will help to clarify and evaluate them more

critically.

Assuming you can pass the

goals and objectives test, the next question is who

should attend. Invite only those persons who are directly

affected and/or have relevant information. How often have

you sat in a meeting wondering why you are there? It is

interesting to note that productivity of the group

increases as new members are added but at some point, an

optimal level of effectiveness is reached. If we add

participants beyond this optimal point, productivity

starts to decline. Fewer participants are better, as the

point of diminishing returns is reached quickly.

Once the goals are set and

the participants determined, a few ground rules are

useful:

1. Prepare a written

agenda. Even if there is only one item on the agenda or

the meeting is regularly scheduled, write it down and

give copies to the participants. You owe it to them.

2. Arrive early. See that

the meeting room is clean and necessary materials are

available. Usually, something needs to be done to get a

meeting place ready.

3. Start on time, end on

time. It's not fair to those who arrive on time to wait

for those who don't. Pace the meeting to keep the

commitment to the promised adjournment time. Participants

have planned other work around it.

4. No interruptions. Don't

allow outside interruptions or participants to interrupt

each other. If they are present, their opinions are

important.

5. Be a good participant.

If you are a participant, you deserve a well organized

and a well run meeting. Don't tolerate a poor meeting.

You are also expected to contribute to the success of the

meeting.

6. Be a good facilitator.

If you are the meeting facilitator, state the goals and

objectives, keep it on schedule, and involve everyone in

the process.

7. Summarize and follow up.

Always review the results and develop a follow up plan to

insure that agreed upon action is taken.

Be particularly careful of

establishing a standing committee that meets regularly.

Attending such meetings gets to be a habit, and habits

are hard to break. These meetings can become part of the

company culture, and it can be politically difficult to

question such an established meeting. But it takes some

courage to fight the war on meetings, and don't be afraid

to disband an obsolete practice.

One weapon in the fight

against nonproductive meetings may be mini-meetings. It

may be possible to have several informal, short meetings

during the day and get more done than in scheduled and

more formal meetings.

Someone once said, "We

must conquer war, or war will conquer us." I feel

the same way about meetings.

Free by fax: If you would

like a free report on how to create a motivating work

environment, please fax your name on your letterhead or

E-mail us with the words, "Motivate" to 770-760-0581/[email protected] .

Gregory P. Smith, author of

The New Leader, and How to Attract, Keep and Motivate

Your Workforce. He speaks at conferences, leads seminars

and helps organizations solve problems. He leads an

organization called Chart Your Course International

located in Conyers, Georgia. Phone him at (770)860-9464

or send an email at [email protected] . More information and articles are

available at https://www.chartcourse.com .