Do you need to be in ALL the meetings?

Meetings should have high impact! But do they always? The amount of wasted time in organizations on low impact & ineffective meetings has risen. Time to take stock of what REALLY makes for a high impact meeting.

1. As an organizer, ask yourself “do we REALLY need a meeting?” Are you holding it just because it is scheduled or is it worth the investment of time pulling people away from actively completing their tasks.
2. Are you accepting all meetings regardless? Do you know the value you will bring? Are you the right person? Could you provide information/answer a question to them ahead of time? Have you been invited out of courtesy? How many meetings have you attended where you wonder why you have been invited?

1. Is there a structure to the meeting? Have you requested an agenda? Meetings are taking up precious real estate in your schedule. The objective should be clear with a few items to guide discussion. Unstructured meetings are likely to go off on a tangent and invite other discussion topics, avoiding meeting the objective of the meeting.
2. Start and End on time. If the meeting is structured with a clear objective, the likeliness is that this will be easy. If it runs late or people are late, remember the domino impact his has on the rest of everyone’s’ days, completion of tasks to deadline, stress levels etc.
3. No multi-tasking. . ‘Presenteeism’ is a real problem in meetings. What with there being the constant stream of notifications. If your presence is required, then we should be focusing on what we have been invited to attend to.

How much are your meetings costing you? FREE CALCULATOR

Learning Expert, Master Trainer & Growth Coach

Ella Bates Helping busy people since 1998, create the best day possible with our high impact learning experiences at ebacademyonline and creating the best day at work at ellabates.com