SmallBizResource Blog -- Productivity

8 Ways To Ward Off Meeting Monotony

Posted by Gayle Kesten Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008, 02:37 PM ET

You don't have to be a math whiz to figure this one out: If time equals money, then how much moolah are we wasting sitting through endless meetings?

Too much. I've sat through some doozies, the worst of which were held right after lunchtime, during that food-digesting, nap-inducing time exacerbated by sitting still. (Sometimes the only thing that kept me awake was watching a co-worker, who shall remain nameless, fall asleep.) Conference calls can be equally challenging, with the added temptation of multitasking since no one can see what you're doing.

So rule No. 1 about meetings -- when NOT to call them -- should be obvious. And No. 2: The smaller you keep your meeting, the more on their toes your participants will be forced to stay (there must be some term in psychology for that).

Some additional advice, noted in today's Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Publishing, that can help make your meetings more effective and efficient:

• Don't just discuss: Time-starved teams need more than directionless chatter or meant-to impress progress reports. Productive meetings depend on clearly defined objectives toward which people can work and against which they can measure progress.

• Stop digressions: Deal with off-topic ideas by placing them in a "parking lot" -- a whiteboard or flip-chart page -- and agree to pursue them at a more appropriate time. Politely cut wordy monologues short.

• Encourage full participation: Ask direct questions to quieter participants to get them to speak up. When everyone provides input, you get better ideas.

Those tips were culled from larger article published in December, but whose suggestions aren't the least time-sensitive and could solicit a round of applause:

• Don't always have a meeting. Before calling the troops together yet again, managers should ask themselves whether the purpose of the meeting might be fulfilled some other way. If the point is to share information—which is all too frequently the case in organizations plagued by bad meetings—e-mail, memos, and informal conversations might well work better.

• Think on your feet -- literally: At some organizations, meetings creep is being fought through use of “stand-ups”—brief huddles where participants work through lean-and-mean agendas in rapid-fire fashion, literally standing up all the while to remind one another that the meeting is no time to lean back and settle in.

If all else fails and you feel yourself succumbing to fatigue (this goes for those who called the meeting as well as those attending it), look around the (virtual) room and figure out which out of 10 characters your fellow participants most resemble.

How do you make your meetings more productive?

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