I read an article about the three major occurrences that
make meetings bad and tips to overcome a bad meeting. Many of these points
coincide with discussions in class.
The first of these is not understanding the importance of
the “who”. It is very common that a meeting will include people that don’t need
to be there, are pretending to listen or aren’t really part of the meeting at
all. Instead of wasting employees’ time and productivity, invite only those
that have a head role in the topics being discussed. If everyone in the meeting
is connected to the topics being covered more will be accomplished and everyone
will participate and have an interest in being there. Along side that, it is
suggested that the person that is the owner of a specific topic lead that
portion of the meeting. This makes a lot of sense because that person will be
the best leader of the conversation and can make whatever is decided upon
happen.
The second cause of bad meetings is not understanding the
importance of why. If the people in attendance don’t understand why they are
there they won’t make any effort to offer ideas and thoughts. This is why it is
important to have an agenda and try to send it to all invited members so they
can understand what will be covered, who is responsible for the topic and be
prepared to speak about the topics being covered.
Last is not understanding the importance of what’s next.
Meetings might be very productive but if there are no executables that come
from it then it was pointless to have the meeting. Meetings should end with a
discussion about what happens next and what everyone’s next step is. The
article mentions figuring out a way to check in with the primary lead to make
sure everything is being done correctly and on time. If steps are taken to
complete the tasks and topics discussed in the meetings, meetings will be seen
as useful and valuable.
Meeting should be viewed as something valuable to a company.
As the article states, it should be treated as an investment on which
you want to get a great return. Therefore, time and effort needs to be put in
to them to get that return.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/07/02/3-ways-to-make-meetings-much-less-boring-and-much-more-useful/
JC
