Meeting,Day,Wastes,Your,Life,A business, insurance A Meeting A Day Wastes Your Life Away

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Meeting. A coming face to face for friendly or hostile ends. >>Chambers 20th Century Dictionary._______________________________________________________How many millions of hours will be wasted today in pointless,unplanned and unproductive meetings? Take a guess.If just 1 person in 20 of America's working population has spentone hour in a useless meeting today (an underestimate, in myopinion) then the equivalent of over 120 person years have justbeen idled away. Almost two whole lifetimes. Every day.Yet that waste could so easily be avoided.It has become the accepted business mantra: 'let's have ameeting', as if the mere act of sitting around a table is goingto solve every problem. But in my long experience of trying tofocus on the issue while looking moderately intelligent whiledesperately fighting to stay awake, few meetings ever get thechance to solve anything for the simple reason that they are sobadly run._______________________________________________________No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolishideas have died there. >> F. Scott Fitzgerald_______________________________________________________Meetings tend to be held for one (or more) of the followingreasons:1. Because the Client is paying top dollar for our services andhas asked for one.2. Because nobody has any idea how to resolve the currentproblem, so as many people as possible are gathered together toshare the failure.3. Ditto number 2, but with the more optimistic expectation thatsome solution will be eventually hammered out.4. Because one person is convinced they know best and wants touse a public forum to 'hear (and ignore) everyone's view' beforeimposing their own.5. Because it is Monday (or any other day) and we always have ameeting at this time.6. Because it is better than working.The problem with the vast majority of business meetings is thatnobody really takes ownership. A well run, effective meeting is apleasure to be part of but sadly, training in effective meetingsmanagement is rarely given. And so most start at a pretty lowlevel and go downhill from there on in._______________________________________________________Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything. >> John Kenneth Galbraith_______________________________________________________Running good, effective business meetings is a skill that caneasily be learned. A whole book could easily be filled withthings to do and remember, the following 12 key points will helpyour meetings to be fruitful and your colleagues to stay awake.1. The first question to ask yourself is whether you really needa meeting at all. Many are held out of habit, or a sense ofobligation. Consider a telephone conference call or even anexchange of emails as your first option.2. Who really needs to be invited? There is often a feeling that'the more the merrier.' This is rarely the case. In myexperience, the smallest number of people involved leads to thegreatest effect. Make sure that everyone who is there has atleast the possibility of adding to the knowledge of the group asa whole. Observers should be avoided at all costs.A good way to limit the numbers is to work out the rough cost ofall the participants. Ten people in a meeting whose averagesalary is $60,000 comes to over $330 per hour. Add in a notionalroom hire cost and refreshments and you can see that even a shortmeeting can cost your company serious money. Money which isprobably used more effectively if half of those ten people areleft to get on with their real jobs._______________________________________________________The length of a meeting rises with the square of the number ofpeople present. >> Eileen Shanahan_______________________________________________________3. Put one person in charge. It doesn't have to be the mostsenior person, but whoever is delegated the role of 'chair'should have sufficient force of character to keep everyone undercontrol. The important rule is that everyone must know who is theleader and must not try to 'take over.'4. The meeting leader should circulate a detailed and unambiguousagenda to all the delegates in good time. If research needs to bedone or any items need to be brought to the meeting, this shouldbe clearly set out on the agenda along with the name of theresponsible party.5. If the agenda can't be put on one side of a sheet of paper, itis too long. Simplify it, or as a last resort, schedule twomeetings.6. The leader should open the meeting with a clear announcementof what the problems are.7. It is very easy to get sidetracked. I have lost count of thenumber of meeting I have attended where anything but the problemin hand has been discussed. The worst offenders are clients whoare 'in town' and have nowhere else to go once the meeting isover. They try to stretch things out to fill their time. Do notlet them get away with it. The meeting leader must be strongenough to keep the group 'on message' and when everything hasbeen discussed that needs to be, wind up clearly and cleanly.8. Don't rush. Give each point the time it deserves, but be awarethat the full agenda has to be covered and endless discussion ona relatively minor point is simply another waste of everyone'stime.9. If all the delegates work in the same building, call each onein to the meeting only when they are needed. There is nothingworse than sitting through two hours of irrelevancies beforegetting to 'your bit.' But this happens all the time. Allow andencourage people to come in and out as required.10. Firmly, but politely ask all attendees to turn off theircell phones.11. Give one person the job of taking clear minutes. Make surethat a summary of the meeting's decisions and actions is runthrough and agreed by everybody before breaking up. At the sametime, make sure that a clear action plan for each attendee isminuted. Distribute the minutes as quickly as possible -certainly within 24 hours.12. Schedule meetings before lunch or late afternoon. It is farmore likely that they will finish on time. Always make a point ofstarting on time - even if all the attendees have not arrived(unless there is a very good reason). If you are known to run atight, effective meeting your colleagues will respect you for itand usually behave accordingly.Follow these pointers and your meetings will work harder and moreefficiently than ever before. And who knows, you might find youdidn't really need a meeting after all.