February 2008 Spotlight:

Meeting Madness

Ever been invited, requested, or told to attend a meeting about which you had no clue, no preparation, and no value to add? Well join the millions of people that sponsor, facilitate, and attend those delightful sessions. My focus this month continues on improving the bottom line by eliminating the waste stream from your company's daily business practices.

A closer examination of how meetings are structured and how attendees are selected reveals many opportunites to improve office productivity. The hours and dollars wasted each day are staggering.

A few things to consider when deciding to have a meeting:

• Conduct purposeful meetings - be clear about the reason for the meeting
• Invite those that need to be there - less is more
• State the expected outcomes - set the expectations upfront
• Stick to the agenda - we all love the anecdotes, but maybe later.
• Stay to the time set - start on time and end on time.
• Sending advance materials - if a preread is required make it brief and timely

So how many of these folks do you know?

The Talker - Enjoys having a meaningful conversation, even if it is just with themself.

The Late Guy - Always fashionably late - what does that mean? This person shows up late routinely and then may even proceed to further interrupt by telling everyone why they are late. We don't need excuses, either you respect people's time or you don't.

The Know it All - Constantly overuns meetings with their ideas and desires. They can have endless debates with the Talker.

The Multi Tasker - This person appreciates that you have provided them a place to sit while they rumage through their emails, papers, and other non related materials.

Mr. Drive By - This person will take every opportunity to have a meeting. The meeting might only last two minutes and it may happen passing in the hallway or on your way to the bathroom. Rest assured that you have probably just received an action item and didn't even realize it.

The Meeting Guy - This person is amazingly at every meeting. They must be real important, or their job description must say attend meetings for the sake of attending meetings. The scarey thing is that there are more of these people than you think.

The Rathole Professional - This person will undoubtedly find the quickest route to derailing a meeting, and then fuel the discussions to stay down the wrong path.

The Gadget Lover - Whether it is a new phone or some other personal device, this person is typically self absorbed and happily amused with their toys inspite of your meeting intentions.

If we take a moment and reflect on how we each participate at meetings, the sad truth is that we are all part of the problem. In order to increase your personal success in attending a meeting consider the following:

• Avoid setting back to back meetings - everyone needs to decompress and then refocus.
• Be respectful of start and stop times - if your late, be discrete
• Keep focused on the meeting - stop the multi tasking
• Enable everyone to particpate - so don't personally dominate
• Prepare to make a difference - read materials (if available) and be ready

Make a difference today by canceling or not scheduling one meaningless meeting. If you are not sure that you can increase your productivity by employing the suggestions above, then send me an email and we can meet to discuss. ;^)

Contributed by Peter Pazmany

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