We have all been there. You know, the meeting that seems to drag on forever and get nothing done. You wonder why you attended and become frusterated because your time has been wasted. There is good news! There are things that you can do to make sure it does not happen again. Keep reading for 16 tips to better meetings. 1 -- ONLY ATTEND MEETINGS YOU NEED TO BE ATTENDING Is this one of those "no duh" statements? I don't know about you, but I have been asked to attend a lot of meetings in my personal and professional life. Back when I was in the corporate world, I could have as many as five meetings scheduled at the same time! One of the best time/meeting tips I ever mastered was to NOT attend meetings I really did not need to attend. 2 WHAT TRAVEL TIME WILL BE NECESSARY? Is the meeting down the hall or do you have to drive an hour or two to get there? If you have a lot of travel time, you need to be stricter on the value of the meeting. 3 IS THERE ANOTHER WAY FOR YOU TO ATTEND? Is an in-person meeting mandatory, or is there another way for you to attend? I use this technique a lot. When there are meetings that are valuable for me, but require frequent travel to attend (I belong to a number of organizations that are 1 and 2 hours away from my home/office), I talk with the meeting coordinator to see if I can attend via telephone. This has saved me a minimum of 6 hours a week consistently. 4 WILL THERE BE DETAILED MEETING MINUTES? If the meeting you are asked to attend is one that you are not contributing, but need the information, you can see if there will be detailed minutes for your review. If there will be, and YOU ARE SURE YOU WILL READ THEM (<-- be honest with yourself!) then you can save time by reading the minutes. The average 2 hour meeting will take about 30 minutes to read the minutes. 5 EVALUATE THE MEETING MANAGERS EFFECTIVENESS If you attend a number of ongoing meetings and find yourself frustrated at the end of each meeting because nothing gets done, you have three choices: Keep attending and be frustrated (but that just does not make sense does it) Address the meeting planner and share your observations and ask if there is anything you can do to help move the meeting to success Stop Attending -- If you are wasting your time anyway, why do you go? Maybe you could treat this meeting like my friend watches soap operas.... attend every other one or every third one. 6 -- EVALUATE THE MEETING AGENDA When you are invited to a meeting, never say you will attend without first understanding the meeting purpose. What is going to be covered and do you care?! Contact the meeting planner ahead of time to understand the purpose and focus of the meeting and to know what the planner wants to achieve. Once you have this information, you can help make that success happen. 7 UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE INVITED There are different reasons that you might be invited to a meeting. You Called It! -- You are the one that identified the need for a meeting and have coordinated the attendees. You Have Information Other's Need - You will be asked to share some form of knowledge during the meeting. You Need to Get Information that Others Have - While you will not be presenting at the meeting, the information being covered is critical to your work or activities. Others Think You Need the Information - Your manager or other leader believes the information shared will be critical to your work. You Have No Clue! -- Hey, it does happen. Sometimes it is easier for the meeting planner to go down the address book and just say everyone is invited - let them figure it out... If you don't know why you are on the meeting list, ask the planner. "Is there a specific thing you need from me in this meeting?" or "What are you expecting me to gain by attending this meeting?" or "Do I really need to be at this particular meeting?" 8 KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FROM THE MEETING Once you know what the meeting planner has in mind for success, evaluate what you want to accomplish in your role in the meeting. Do what you can to align your goals with that of the meeting planner and you will both be successful. 9 LIST WHAT YOU NEED TO SAY Focus your thoughts by writing down a list of 5 or so things related to the action item or decision item you want to share with the group. You can do this while waiting on the meeting to start if you want. (How many on-time meetings have you attended recently?) By writing down your points, you will be able to stay on track and not forget your important points. 10 TAKE MEETING MINUTES You don't have to record everything. Start by writing down action items and who is responsible, decisions that were made, and key information that will be important in the future. The meeting minutes become the meetings artifact. The record guides whatever actions take place after the meeting ends. 11 KEEP THE RULES OF ORDER Robert's Rules of Order were written years ago to help a meeting stay on track, allow everyone to be respected and keep things timely. There are some groups that use these rules of order well, but not all groups are open to being quite so formal. If RRO is not used, make sure that you understand what the ground rules are. If your group does not have a set of rules, make some! 12 REFLECTIVELY LISTEN IN INFORMATION MEETINGS There are instances where you must attend a meeting that shares information that you really don't care about. Give the meeting planner a break, he/she is probably obligated to share the information and there are certainly some at the meeting that do care about the topic. Use this as an opportunity to practice your reflective listening. 13 SET THINGS ASIDE Do what you can to not be the meeting de-railer! When you attend meetings ask yourself this question Is this really the right venue? Make sure it is the right time to bring up a new idea or question. If the meeting is focused on brainstorming then go ahead, but if not, consider setting the question/idea aside for later conversation. Everything is related to everything else in business meetings. Be conscious about what is really important for the meeting you are attending. If you choose to not discuss your thoughts, make sure to write an action item so you don't forget. 14 ASK FOR ACTION ITEMS As the meeting is winding to a close, suggest a review of the action items so that they are all down; or ask if you could do a quick review for confirmation; or ask the meeting coordinator if they would like to review the follow-ups. 15 END THE MEETING WHEN IT IS DONE Since you started this meeting knowing what the meeting coordinator's goals were (see above) you will have a pretty good idea of when the goals have been met. If it seems like the meeting should be over, but it is dragging on, ask the meeting coordinator if his/her goals have been met and the meeting can be closed. For those that want to stick around and chat, they can. You can leave to do other things! 16 ASK QUESTIONS AFTERWARD Before you attend the meeting, be aware of who will be attending so that you can make effective use of after meeting time too! Create a list of questions/updates you want to share that are non-meeting-topic-related. Once the meeting is adjourned, whip out your list and ask your questions as you walk out the door. No matter what you meeting attendee philosophy, there are likely meetings you are going to that you should not be. Take a moment and evaluate those meetings and determine which ones you can eliminate from your schedule and use the extra time to TAKE ACTION on your important areas of life. There are also meetings that you should be at. In those cases, do what you can to make them more productive and everyone will be happier for your efforts.
Article Source: http://bizymoms.com/business
Visit and subscribe to www.ProductiveAndOrganized.net to get more ideas on managing your time and getting things done. Stephanie LH Calahan believes that everyone can live a productive and organized life. She is a speaker, productivity and organization consultant and founder of Calahan Solutions, Inc. Her favorite thing to do is help you find better ways to manage your time, space and information so that you can live life your way! Copyright 2009 Calahan Solutions, Inc.