RICH SOLUTIONS BLOG

To meet or not to meet

Meetings 1 – first in a series about running effective meetings

Most of us attend more meetings than we would like. Far too often they feel like a waste of our time. The information that is communicated could have been given in a form that is less time consuming, less confusing and involves fewer people. Instead of team building, the meetings breed contempt.

I once had a supervisor who insisted all employees attend staff meetings once a month. The supervisor would essentially parade in front of us and hold court for about 45 minutes. Our attendance was required and we all felt trapped. This behavior was counterproductive. It wasted our valuable resources and built resentment.

I’ll bet you have stories about bad meetings. You might even be suffering from low morale because of the meeting culture where you work.

Meetings can, however, be useful. Very useful.
They can inspire productivity and camaraderie. They can streamline planning and can build good will.

This blog entry is the first in a series about how to run meetings that are more effective and efficient.

Let’s begin with the question: to meet or not to meet!

Consider: Is holding a meeting your best strategy for accomplishing what you want to get done? Or, are there other methods that could be equally or more effective in achieving that end?

Meeting can be helpful if you want to:
• Disseminate information
• Create and develop understanding
• Pool and develop ideas (brain storming)
• Develop a plan
• Provide a sense of direction
• Set targets and objectives
• Set tasks and delegating
• Solve problems
• Make decisions
• Encourage enthusiasm and initiative
• Create a common purpose and/or a common vision.
If these are among your goals, calling a meeting may make sense. There are, however, no hard and fast rules in determining if a meeting is truly necessary. There are many variables that determine how “meeting-happy” an organization is. Organizational cultures, management style and organizational demands all play a role.

Before calling a meeting, do some thinking and strategizing about what needs to get done. Decide if those goals could be better accomplished by other means. For example, instead of gathering everyone together to decide on a particular issue, send the information via email and provide a deadline for response. Employees will be grateful that you took the extra step toward valuing their time.

I am curious to hear other strategies employers and managers use to substitute for meetings.

In further blogs, I will tackle how to make meetings more streamlined when you have determined that they are the best strategy for getting work done.

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