Five Steps to a
Productive Meeting
by: Donald Wetmore 
It is said that on an average day in the United States, there
will be 17 million meetings. (It makes you wonder how anything
ever gets done!) A meeting is two or more people getting together
to exchange information. What could be simpler? Yet, it is one
of the biggest institutional time wasters that we suffer.
An informative exercise is to calculate the hourly cost of
the meeting. A person earning $50,000 per year represents an
hourly salary cost to the organization of $25 (without adding
in benefits, overhead, and profit potential). If ten people
at this salary level meet for one hour, the cost is $250 for
the hour. Then look at what was accomplished. Was it worth $250?
Sometimes "yes". A lot of the times, "no".
I have created five steps that will help you to improve the
productivity of your meetings. Even if you are not responsible
for running the meeting, bring these suggestions to the person
who is responsible.
1. Ask, "Is it necessary?" We always hold the meeting
because we have always held the meeting. What would happen if
it did not take place? What if we did not meet quite so often?
How about if we met once a month instead of every week?
2. Ask the question, "Am I necessary?" Now I do
not mean this in the deep philosophical sense, but, rather,
"do I get anything out of the meeting?" and "do
I contribute anything to the meeting?" If the answers to
those two questions are both "no", try to avoid attending
the meeting. Or, perhaps just the first half of the meeting
is relevant to you. In this case, see if there is a way to get
excused from the second half of the meeting.
3. Prepare an agenda. Just as it is a good practice to prepare
a daily "to do list" to help us get focused each day,
we ought to have a written agenda for our meeting. Circulate
it in advance to those who will be attending. Let them know
what is to be discussed. Give them a chance to prepare. Do not
hold meetings by "ambush".
4. Set the times. Have a starting time and stick to it. Set
time for each item to be discussed so that one item does not
dominate the entire meeting leaving no time to discuss the other
items. Have an ending time and stick to it.
5. Commit to action. Meetings ought to produce results. Resolve
to a course of action. We have discussed the issue, so now what?
Assign responsibility for the tasks to specific individuals
with deadlines and hold them accountable.
If you found these tips helpful, Don Wetmore is available
to tailor and personally conduct his learning programs, in-house,
at your location for groups of eight or more from one-hour up
to three days. Contact Don now for details at: ctsem@msn.com
or call him directly at: (203) 929-9902.
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