Why do you think so many people feel meetings are a waste of time?
- Because they are
generally not ran properly, they do not keep to time and nothing really
gets actioned.
- People don’t turn up on
time or have to leave early
- Some people don’t
respect the other participants which leads to problems
- There are too many of
them
What are the most common mistakes made in meetings?
- Actions from meetings
are not made accountable i.e. people think they can get away with not
carrying out their agreed task and wait until the next meeting or a
meeting after that to give a reason why.
- Late to meetings.
Participants don’t realise that actions are actually taken and given
without them. If the meeting starts on time and is ran correctly
then no one should ever be late.
- Meetings starting
late. This is disrespectful to the participants
- Don’t stay on track and
move off the subject being discussed
- Running over
- Travel it takes to get
to them not considered
What can be done to make meetings more productive and useful?
- Agenda one week
beforehand so people can be prepared
- Minutes from the last
meeting attached
- Get things sorted
outside the meeting. Small details can be ironed out and sorted
before a meeting so you only confirm what is to be actioned inside the
meeting.
- Only discuss a certain
amount of points and keep to time and don’t run over
- Only have the necessary
people at the meeting
Can you give any personal examples of good and bad practice around
meetings?
- I have been involved in
hundreds of meetings and one good practice that the late Dame Anita
Roddick had was to lock the meeting room door if people were late.
- She would then proceed
to give all the actions to that person. No one was ever late to a
meeting with Anita. Her time was to precious anyway.
- Where a meeting lasted 4
hours. No one can sit there for 4 hours and concentrate.
What tips would you give for making meetings productive and
relevant?
- The first thing you must
always do with a meeting is get someone to chair it/run it and someone to
take actions Keep them short and to the point. The meeting will be
well managed
- Some actions can be
taken offline before the meeting ensuring that only the really important
things that need a big discussion by the group get air time.
- Use technology to get
things sorted quickly outside of meetings – WhatsApp groups, messenger to
get group agreement before a meeting
- Don’t have so many so
things have to be carried out between meetings – 4 a year
- Get actioned confirmed
by email on a regular basis. Trello is a great PM tool. My
company use it and it’s very effective at getting results
