Tips for MEETINGS

In my experience, at least 20% of meetings are a waste of time. Of the rest only about 50% of the time and effort in those meetings is of any value so my first tip for meetings is don't have them at all unless they are going to be productive. Don't hold meetings because convention dictates you have them or from some distorted view that businesses have to have them to be effective.

Secondly and a favourite annoyance for me is - Don't let people turn up late. How often have we sat in a room full of people waiting for someone to slope in 5 minutes after the meeting should have started? How much is that 5 minutes x no. of people costing? We wouldn't stand for that level of waste anywhere else so why do we put up with it in this situation?

If we have spent half a day in meetings, how effectively are we doing the day's worth of work we are now having to cram into the other half a day?

Keep meetings brief and to the point - this is not a social gathering. Have clear objectives before the meeting and monitor outcomes. Send attendees away with clear tasks and make sure that they are followed up. When the purpose of a series of meetings is fulfilled, stop having them.