Bad 7 Symptoms of Meetings


• From no clear purpose to unprepared attendees • The signs of a bad meeting • What you can do to fix them


T


he door to the meeting room opens and it’s the person who called the meeting, running 10 minutes late because


the previous meeting


ended late and he had to stop by his office and pick up some notes to remind him of what this meet- ing was about. The folks already in the room are discussing last night’s game and wondering how long the


meeting is going to last. Only one person remembers getting the notes from the last meeting. And he’s the only one that has a copy of the report they’re supposed to discuss. Does this sound or feel familiar? You’re not alone. One topic that everyone can agree on is this: meetings are often a waste of time and money. Scary meeting statistics abound. Software com- pany Atlassian’s infographic states that U.S. businesses waste $37 billion a year. Some of that meeting time may have been wasted in your organization. What is strange is why this situation isn’t on the top of anyone’s list to get fixed. If we are wasting billions, why don’t corporations make the effort to fix the problem? Perhaps it boils down to a lack of accountability. But this is something that is entirely within our control. Here are some symptoms of bad meet- ings and what you can do to fix them. 1. Your meetings ramble on without a clear purpose. If there’s an agenda, no one follows it.


28 Good meeting practice says that a specific agenda will almost


always reduce the time wasted in a meeting. A poll of 471 manage- ment leaders noted that 90% of those polled attributed the failure of most meetings to a lack of advanced planning and organization. So be sure to send out an agenda before the meeting. Review the agenda at the beginning of the meeting and gain agreement to follow it. It’s also important to empower people to point out when the meeting veers off the agenda. That way everyone can share the responsibility to keep things on track. 2. People are doing their own thing during the meeting - texting, talking on the phone, responding to email, carrying on unrelated conversations. One way to avoid this is to establish ground rules that everyone agrees on before the meeting begins. These rules include removing temptation by setting limits on texting, email and phone conversa- tions, and requiring people to listen without interrupting. Even if people have agreed in advance to these rules, they may need to be reminded of the ground rules at the beginning of the meeting or during the meeting itself if the rule-breaking is particularly egre- gious. Such reminding may be done by fellow members or by the meeting leader if there is one. 3. People show up who are not prepared. They haven’t read the report, document or spreadsheet that the meeting was about or they have not done the re- search they promised to do. A well-run organization holds staff members accountable for doing their jobs and keeping their promises. But real life often


MIDWEST MEETINGS WINTER 2014


by Joel D. Levitt


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