I've been in enough companies, that I have started to develop an almost pathological aversion to meetings. The
wikipedia entry on meetings actually touches on the problems I run into:
"In organizations, meetings are an important vehicle for personal contact. They are so common and pervasive in organizations, however, that many take them for granted and forget that, unless properly planned and executed, meetings can be a waste of time and resources."
So, how properly plan and execute a meeting? I have a few rules that help:
- Does this have to be a meeting? Some meetings are often incorrectly substituted for other business activities - for example as a method of reporting status. Often there are other, less resource and time-intensive methods to accomplish the same goal. So I find a great first question is "Can this be accomplished using some other means?"
- What is the agenda? The agenda is the entire purpose for the meeting, and what it will accomplish. It dictates the length of the meeting far more than the amount of time blocked out in the schedule. Without an agenda, meetings run a greater risk of not accomplishing their goals and wasting time and resources.
- Who really must be in the room? Often requests are sent to whomever is on the project team, so they don't miss out on valuable information. That can be better communicated by publishing the meeting minutes afterwards. Instead, focus on who needs to be in the room to accomplish the agenda.
I think by making sure those three questions are carefully considered, meetings called have a much greater success rate and value.