Compared to some people that I have worked with the number of meetings that I attend is paltry. I would like to discuss some of the problems I have with meetings though, not meetings really, just work related activities that lack a concrete agenda or task list.
I find it to be extremely awkward to be a part of a meeting where nobody knows what kind of work we are trying to accomplish. Often the most productive thing that happens in meetings of this nature is that the people attending the meeting get better acquainted with each other.
Here are some of the things that I do in meetings to help me stay productive, not 100% related to the annoyance of not having an agenda:
- If I am in charge of the meeting I use Word to write a document that outlines the agenda and topics that need to be addressed, I use the Outline view so that parent topics can be collapsed and I send it to all who will be attending the meeting as early as possible.
- Using OneNote I maintain a list of people that are sitting around the table so that I do not have to struggle remembering names.
- I maintain a list of questions that come up and their answers, I flag each questions with the name of the person that asked it and the status of an answer. If a question is asked and an answer is not given I will take time later to approach the problem again or I will double check with the person that asked the question to see if they are satisfied with whatever information was presented.
- I list all of the tasks that come up throughout the meeting and flag them with the name of the person that they are assigned to. I then recap all of these tasks at the end of the meeting.
- If discussions begin to wander away from a bullet point that I have included in the agenda I will make a conscious effort to drive them back to the outlined agenda. There are times when topics that were not foreseen need to be discussed and can take up a lot of time, at these times I have found that it is valuable to at least point out that you are going to go off topic so that those that the new material might not apply too can leave the meeting and you do not waste their time. It may also be valuable to drive them back to the current agenda and note an additional task that consists of scheduling another meeting around the newly topic that needs discussion.
- If there are documents with contents that are relevant to your discussion they should be distributed well before the meeting. It is awkward and uncomfortable for people to have to read documents that are handed out at a meeting and then discuss them. Invariably someone will finish very quickly and will either have to wait to discuss or hurry others into discussion before they are done comprehending the contents of the document.
If you are running meetings it is important not to waste the time of those attending. I have found that not only will people be more willing to attend meetings when you do not waste time but they will also be more willing to listen to what you have to say in general because they will know that you are organized and relevant.
That’s all I’ve got off the top of my head, if you have some tips or interesting points please do not hesitate to make them in the comments.
