Make The Best Of Meetings

One of the biggest time wasters in any organization is… you guessed it-meetings. According to MeetingKing.com, $37 billion is wasted annually on unnecessary business meetings-some 11 million per year.

Other statistics include:

· 37 percent of employee time is spent in meetings

· Managers attend more than 60 meetings per month

· 47% consider too many meetings the biggest waste of time

· 39% of meeting participants admitted to dozing off during a meeting

· Over 70% brought other work to meetings

· 25-50% of meeting time is wasted

· The researchers found that the more meetings employees attended, the more exhausted they felt and the higher they perceived their workload to be.

Small businesses can’t afford this kind of waste, both of time and dollars. Below are tips to ensure that you are conducting effective meetings and making the most of your and your employees’ time.

1. Set a place, a time (beginning and ending), and an agenda.

Make sure everyone who will attend knows the topics to be covered in the meeting before they arrive so they’ll know how to prepare.

2. Keep it short.

Hold your meeting just before lunch or quitting time. People tend to keep on point if they are hungry. It may be necessary to follow up with people after a short meeting, but more gets done in two twenty-minute meetings than in one hour-long meeting.

3. Keep ‘em on their toes.

If possible, hole your meetings in a location without chairs. If participants must stand, the meeting will progress much faster.

4. Keep it informal.

You can cover a lot of ground around the Keurig or the water cooler. The people who need it will get the appropriate information, and they won’t even know they’ve been in a meeting.

5. Start at the end.

Remember how you used to write papers in school? You started with your thesis statement and then backed it up with facts, stats and anecdotes. Start with your point rather than building up to it. That way if the meeting is cut short, the important stuff has been covered.

6. Stick to the subject.

Don’t philosophize, editorialize or try to “educate.” Focus on your people and your business.

7. Delegate.

Let someone else run the meeting. It may help them organize their thoughts and will help them develop their communication and supervisory skills. If you do delegate control, be supporting and back them up if they need it. Make sure that the group gives the meeting leader the proper attention and respect.

8. Two-way open communication.

In other words, this isn’t a lecture or a speech. It should be a giving and taking of information. This way you’ll find out about problems and issues you might not have otherwise.

Make The Best Of Meetings