Flavio Frohlich
  • Home
  • Contact
  • Thoughts
  • Book
  • IN THE NEWS
  • ABOUT
  • Speaker

1/25/2017

Productive Meetings

1 Comment

Read Now
 
Most of us spend a lot of time in meetings. I believe meetings are important since the quality of the interaction is very different from phone/email/twitter etc. However, I have started to realize that time can go by very quickly in meetings and at the end of the day no time was left for thinking, reading, and writing. Here are some things that I have found help to make meetings productive:
  • Spend the first few minutes on setting the agenda (with focus on what the goal of the meeting is). This is obvious but important. then follow the agenda. Extra gold star for the people who bring a print out of the agenda, makes it easier to follow when printed on a piece of paper!
  • Taking notes! I have yet to experience a meeting where nobody took notes/minutes and the meeting was worth anybody's time. Designate a scribe! Review the notes at the next meeting. Have people sign the minutes! This all raises the stakes and emphasizes the importance of what is discussed in the meeting.
  • Find a good place to meet. I will no longer hold meetings in rooms without windows... Meeting participants need to be comfortable to give their best. Offer water or coffee!
  • Start on time and finish on time. This one that I find very challenging - I greatly enjoy working with my team and collaborators and it is hard to cut off conversations despite this is needed.
  • Fight the urge to make every meeting an hour long! Most meetings can be done in 30 minutes and, yes, some of them require 2 hours.
  • Shake hands! This may be cultural (and relate to my European roots) but I really appreciate to wrap up the meeting with a clear sign of agreement and drive to action - the hand shake!
  • Say no to meetings in which your attendance is not absolutely crucial.
  • Surprise people - if nothing surprising happens at a meeting it was too much routine and thereby did not really require a meeting.
  • Replace in person meetings with asynchronous conversations using tools such as Basecamp.
  • Never have a discussion/"meeting" by email - too stressful, too hard to follow.
I hope that some of these ideas make you less "busy all the time" and thus more productive!

Take care,

Flavio

Share

1 Comment
productive meetings link
6/21/2017 07:08:36 am

Really great tips. I know how difficult it is to make our meeting a productive. It requires lot of effort and patience. But you have suggested some golden tips, that make the meeting effective. Thank you and keep updating!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Details

    Author

    Flavio.

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Contact
  • Thoughts
  • Book
  • IN THE NEWS
  • ABOUT
  • Speaker