(Courtesy of bradrox.)
One of the things that interested me most about joining this team was the opportunity to work with a bunch of very competent people. Smart people, working hard can accomplish a tremendous amount more than any process and training can do. Thank you for this opportunity!
Smart people get bored easily. Meetings provide a perfect breeding ground for boredom. Once you’ve said what you need to say, it can be difficult to listen to everyone else who needs to say what they came to say. Smart, bored people have very clever ways of creating distractions that reduce the effectiveness of meetings. However, “effective listening” is one of the most important techniques to master if you want to shorten meetings…and thereby reduce boredom. Here are a few reminders that should improve the effectiveness of your next meeting. You can find many other resources available on the web.
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Keep the purpose of the meeting to one important topic
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Select participants appropriate to that purpose
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State a clear agenda. The agenda should contain:
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Purpose of the meeting, goal-oriented, what you expect the result to be (e.g. an agreement, an assignment, a date, etc.)
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Why participants were selected
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Who will speak on sub-topics
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Ask for further discussion
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Ask for a decision
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Review “action items” (who’s going to do what next)
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Send the Agenda, Time, Place and review materials far enough in advance for participants to prepare
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Keep on schedule (schedule another meeting to discuss side topics, and give time to prepare)
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Review the decisions made and action item assignments
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Make sure that everyone was heard. (Notice I did not say “Make sure everyone gets to speak.”)
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Ask for active agreement from all participants
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Close the meeting on time
The suggestions above may seem like a lot of process. It may seem like it won’t work in a dynamic environment. Please note, the agenda can be prepared in less than a minute if you keep the meeting focused on the goal and purpose. If all participants are already aware of the issues, preparation may be less than a minute. Making your meetings more effective will give you more time to deal with that “dynamic environment” we live in. Thanks again for the opportunity to join this great team.