Twenty Something Sense

I’m often amazed at how inefficient the corporate working environment can be. The most frustrating part of my day (and presumably many others) is sitting through countless meetings that often achieve nothing. Hours each week are spent attending meetings that do not move projects forward and thus contribute nothing to the bottom line. I am not speaking of presentations or informational meetings, although at times these can be a waste as well, I am only talking about meetings that are held to answer questions and get things done.

Running an effective meeting is not rocket science. Here are my very basic tips to remember:

1. What are you looking to get out of the meeting? Create an objective for your meeting. You need to clearly define exactly what questions need answered during your meeting and communicate these objectives to your attendees prior to your meeting.
2. How should the meeting be structured to accomplish your objectives? Develop a time-boxed agenda and stick to it. Make sure to include this in your meeting invite. Attendees of your meeting should not be surprised about what is going to be discussed. This helps them to properly prepare.
3. Who should you invite to the meeting to achieve your objectives? Only invite people to your meetings that will add value by helping to meet your objectives. Do not waste peoples time or yours.
4. Finally, what are the next steps coming out of your meeting? These are commonly called action items. You need to assign people to tackle these action items and agree to specific dates that these will be completed by.

These sound very basic, but they are often overlooked and contribute to the corporate waste. Next time you run a meeting, if you do nothing else - state very clearly what the output of the meeting needs to be and you will be much happier with the results.

For those looking for more tips - here is a good Business Week article from a few years back that provides more helpful hints.