Surveys
show that businesses waste 20% of their professional payroll on bad
meetings. Gain huge savings by managing these seven myths about
meetings.
You can hold effective meetings and become a more successful leader if you avoid these seven monsters. Here's how.
> Myth 1: Executives belong in meetings.
Although the demands of business cause executives to attend more
meetings than other professionals, executives should be very selective
on which meetings they attend. Top management is responsible for
vision, strategy, plans, and communication. That means wise executives
spend most of their time thinking, learning, planning, and
communicating. Inefficient, ineffective meetings waste the time of the
company's most valuable employees.
Better: Ask probing questions when invited to make sure that your
presence will add value. For example, "What are your goals for the
meeting?" "How will I contribute to achieving those goals?" and "How
can I prepare for the meeting?" After all, you want to contribute to an
effective meeting if you decide to attend.
> Myth 2: Holding a large meeting is impressive.
Actually, holding a large meeting is expensive. It can also be
impressive if it is conducted properly, which means that it will be as
small a possible.
Better: Invite only those who can make meaningful contributions. The
likelihood of holding an effective meeting diminishes with groups
larger than ten or twelve.
> Myth 3: Structure inhibits spontaneity.
This is true if your goal is to obtain random outcomes over infinite
time. While this may occasionally produce spectacular results, such as
winning a lottery, you can achieve predictable results faster by
applying structured activities. These help people make methodical
progress toward results. Otherwise, the group is attending a party,
instead of working in a meeting.
Better: Use structured activities to keep you in control of your meeting and make progress toward results.
> Myth 4: People are too busy to prepare agendas.
Since there is always time to repeat a task, fix a problem, or make an
apology, there must be time to take the steps that avoid such dilemmas.
Overall, preparing an agenda saves time and money.
Better: Prepare an agenda or, if you are too busy, ask someone to do it
for you. Then send the agenda to the participants so that they can
prepare for the meeting.
> Myth 5: Minutes are unnecessary.
This is true for any meeting where people wasted time producing
nothing. Effective meetings produce results that are worth documenting.
Minutes serve to track action items, record decisions, and inform
others. If you are planning a meeting with no results worth
documenting, ask yourself why that meeting is necessary.
Better: Record key ideas, agreements, and action items during the meeting. Then convert these notes into minutes.
> Myth 6: Meetings should last a long time.
While this may be true for some meetings, most meetings can be
conducted in less than an hour. Long, casual meetings lull people into
lethargy. In general, people are able to focus on a task for 30 to 60
minutes. Then their attention fades and they take mental holidays to
think about other things.
Better: Plan meetings where you spend time and resources in proportion
to the value of the results. That is, an effective meeting should be
designed to earn a profit. Also, plan short breaks every 50 minutes.
> Myth 7: The effectiveness of meetings is a low priority.
This is true if you seldom hold meetings. Of course, if you have more
than two employees, you need meetings to make decisions, reach
agreements, and develop solutions. Effective meetings are a critically
essential activity in running a business. They harness the combined
wisdom of your staff to invent products, increase sales, improve
productivity, plan strategies, and create success.
Better: Learn how to plan and conduct meetings that make your business a success.
