Meetings
sometimes it seems we have to have a meeting to go to the bathroom I will say that we usually have an agenda that helps it keeps us on track some of the things that meetings are called for pertains to a small group of individuals
Meetings take away valuable time that could be used on important things
Great point Robert. Sometimes people spend so much time meeting about tasks that they run out of time to do the tasks. It’s important to strike a healthy balance between the two.
We have meetings to talk about meetings that we are thinking about having meetings about.
Interesting point Jasen. And you are not alone. Many people spend far too much time talking about tasks, leaving them far too little time to accomplish them. Striking the right balance is key.
Meetings ! The alternative to real work! Meetings, held without an agenda, without purpose, cause incredible stress. There are hundreds of reasons why they're called, and they are called by hundreds of different personality types / management styles. The tough part is dealing with them, since office politics often demand your participation without beneficial input (ie..why are we here ??). Anyone who can come up with an answer will be very popular with the rest of us !!
Most of our meetings could be handled by Email. If someone screws up instead of them being called on the carpet, we all have to hear about the mistake. this can be depressing to those of us who car enough to do it right
Great points Steve! Meetings do take up a tremendous amount of time and can be stressful when they are unfruitful. One solution that has worked for me is identifying all of the meeting ‘inputs and outputs’ prior to the meeting taking place – and asking the attendees to agree on these in advance of the meeting. Inputs describe information and things needed for the meeting to be a success. This includes things like documents that attendees refer to to answer questions and such. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting down to a meeting and realizing that one or more attendees is not ready to meet. Outputs describe the goals of the meeting and what you intend to accomplish. A meeting is considered to be successful if you can produce all outputs that the group previously agreed upon by the end of the meeting.
steve,
ditto that. are your meetings fully catered?
I completely agree. Most of the meeting I attend can be handled through an online discussion group or email. It's very stressful to sit through a meeting that seems like a waste of time.
Meetings can definitely be time wasters. I have a general rule for them. If the meeting can start without me, I probably don't need to be there.
Meetings are an effective and important tool for facilitating information to staff and team members. However, topics and the presentation tone are very important in the overall effectiveness.
