| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Warning! Meeting In Progress; May Be Hazardous To Your Career
There ought to be a sign posted on every closed office and conference room door that reads: Warning! Meeting In Progress! May Be Hazardous To Your Career. Because most meetings burn up a lot of resources that could be spent on useful purposes. These sessions are either not necessary, or they are so poorly organized and conducted that they achieve only a fraction of their purpose. You'd think any thing that dangerous would be drastically reduced if not eradicated. Not so, the number of meetings appears to be proliferating. How Much Are Meetings Costing Your Company? How much of a problem are meetings for you and your employer? Is the time spent in meetings causing you to be late in turning out your work? Are you going in at night and on weekends to make up for time spent at meetings? Are meetings worth what they are costing your company? One company mounted a large digital meter in its conference room. The total cost per hour for each person (salary and benefits) attending a meeting was fed into a computer, which in turn, divided the sum into cost per minute. The device was activated when more than one person arrived for the meeting and was shut off when the last person left the room. The total dollar cost of the meeting was added up, minute by minute, on a screen for all to see. The number and length of meetings were soon sharply reduced. You can make the same calculation for your firm with a scratch pad and pencil. I guarantee you will be surprised at the cost. The Reasons Meetings Fall Short Meetings fail or fall short of their objective for a variety of reasons. The most frequent cause is that no one - not even the chairman - is in charge. This usually means a clear purpose for the meeting has not been established. An agenda has not been drawn. Participants can't prepare in advance. So there is a lot of wandering around. The door is left wide open for discussion of any and everything, other than the matter at hand. This condition also allows the showboats to get their time on stage. Some people may even prolong a meeting because they have nothing better to do. Meetings are often called to achieve something a meeting cannot accomplish, such as drafting a statement. Meeting may flop because participants have not done their homework. What can you do to control the meeting beasts and make them yield better results for your organization? First, don't hold a meeting unless it is absolutely necessary. It has been estimated that as much as one-third of the subject matter taken up at meetings is not appropriate for that venue and could have been handled by other means - the telephone, e-mail or a stand-up discussion in the hallway. Second, if a meeting is necessary, the chances for success are enhanced greatly by a good chairman, one who will be fair, yet relentlessly firm and fully in control of the proceedings. Contrary to popular belief, good meetings are not freewheeling exercises in utopian democracy. The best ones are run by benevolent dictators. Five Steps To Successful Meetings The truly effective chairman will take five steps to expedite the conference. He or she will: 1. Clearly state the purpose of the meeting and set a time limit; provide an agenda and clearly state the issue(s) to be discussed. This will be done in writing. In advance. 2. Be sure all points of view are given a respectful hearing, but firmly cut off discussions that stray from the purpose of the meeting or are out of sequence. 3. Ensure there is only one discussion going on at a time. 4. Make certain the meeting comes to some recognized conclusion, with "next steps" understood and agreed upon. 5. Send out minutes of the meeting within 24 hours. These minutes will record decisions made and assign follow-up duties. It is a tall order to bring the meeting beast under control. It has been around and growing forever. But it is worth the effort in terms of cutting back on frayed nerves and energy taken away from more productive pursuits. Ramon Greenwood is former senior vice president of American Express; a professional director for various businesses; a consultant; a published author of career related books and a syndicated column. Senior career counselor for http://www.CommonSenseAtWork.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The How-Tos of Firing Incompetent Employees CATEGORIES OF OFFENSES: Most organizations have two categories of offenses in their policies. One category is for flagrant actions which are cause for immediate termination. On the Road to Assertiveness Learning to be assertive takes time, courage and the ability to recognize the situation for what is really is.You want to get something done, and you need another's help. Managing Dickheads "We are so different and individualistic that we can't work together." Subroto Bag chi, a senior executive in wipro technologies and Indian Technology MNC, said to his chairman in a straight talk. Why Businesses Fail - And What You Can Do About It! Have you unintentionally set your business up for failure?No one sets out to fail! Most business owners read all the statistics (maybe more than once) before they open their doors. Many know the reasons why businesses fail. Christmas Carol Coaching - Help to Get Ahead at Holiday Time! I've always been fascinated by situations where art imitates real life and right here is a perfect example, which links Christmas and business & personal development.If you want to read about a serious piece of dodgy people management (bordering on potential litigation); a man all adrift with the world and himself; shown how to do it by three visionary experiences (and with a brilliant example of supportive team-building thrown in); and then the ultimate Christmas 'shift'? These are all brilliantly described for your pleasure in a seasonal read of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. Is It Worth To Outsource? How One Can Outsource Wisely Recent trends in software development market show that it is no longer the most efficient way to work onshore. Competition is too high and in some particular cases, US or European IT people even go farming rather than admit the situation and adapt themselves. What to Do When Trust is Low Trust is essential. You can't run a business without it. Communicating with Offsite Workers How do you, or would you, communicate with employees who work offsite?Perhaps you have telecommuters reporting to you, or sales reps who work out of offices in other cities. How do you communicate with them?Let's start with the strategic issues: what do you want to accomplish by communicating with them? And, why would they want to communicate with you?Strategic means you'll probably want to deal with issues like productivity, accountability, and predictability. Better Management Performance - The Easy 3-Step Way Managers make three mistakes when they try to run businesses. They do too much, they don't trust their people and they don't have enough skills. Efficiency Around The Office Nearly every office, be it commercial or home-based, may have areas of inefficiency that can be improved upon. We are not talking sales figures or profit margins or budgets, but inefficient waste and resource management. Parenting Your Employees to Better Performance Have you ever worked for someone who was such a micro-manager that it drove you crazy? And have you ever worked for someone who was so hands-off that you felt like a lone warrior on the battlefield? These are examples of you working for leaders who did not adapt their style based on the employee's needs. I would venture to guess that you were not entirely motivated to put out your very best effort every time when you were feeling such frustrations. Don't Forget Where You Came from - Why the Past is Important in Implementing Business Change Much of the literature and advice on implementing business change focuses on knowing where you are going and making sure that you understand and communicate a consistent vision of the future. Indeed, I have looked at the importance of this in an earlier article in this series. 3 Simple Things the Best Managers Do - And You Can Too! If it's so simple, why don't managers all over the globe get this right, every time? Well, because it's so simple, it seems too easy, so busy managers squeeze a lot more in, time after time. And that makes things much more complex - just the way a manager should be. MANAGING CRISIS; when you're too good at it When you are acclaimed for excellence during times of crisis you may not feel so good in a non-crisis environment. You may not shine so bright, perform so well, be quite so acclaimed. CEOs And Boards Are Locked In A Spiral Of Doom American CEOs are dropping like flies. Boards, armed with new federal rules and stock exchange requirements coming in the wake of the corporate scandals of the past few years, are getting rid of underperforming CEOs at record rates. What Every Manager Should Know About How to Become An Effective Executive In his book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker pointed out that the effective executive is the person who focuses on making a contribution.This focus on the making of a contribution is the key. Innovation Management - some ideas are better than others Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. How to Reduce Temporary Employee Turnover The use of temporary services to stock a farm of employees is beneficial in a number of ways for an employer, and detrimental in others; but the one that will always be heard is that good labor is hard to find when using these services.This is a very real and expensive reality for some, and the blame always falls on the employee. How to Manage Your Most Valuable Assets - People? People management and leadership has become a major topic of conversation in today's market place and have assumed mythical qualities. Managing you people is not that difficult if you are willing to invest one thing in their development; YOU. Communication Mix-Up My friend Delia is the owner of a small private school. This spring her school is experiencing the crunch of reduced enrollment for next September and all staff have been asked to take a six percent salary decrease.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
