Don’t waste MY TIME (or anyone else’s either)

Most Meetings are a Waste of Time… But yours DON’T HAVE TO BE.

YOU will stand out as an Effective Leader if your meetings are different. It is easier than you may think.

1. Have a Clear Purpose. Never meet without an Agenda or a planned outcome.
2. Ensure all the Right People are there and not just the decision makers. Get input from all the best resources, remember to look outside of the obvious ones. Take advantage of all available diversity and listen closely to the people in the trenches; they know more than you give them credit for.
3. Don’t waste people’s time, their time is as valuable to them as yours is to you. Plan enough Time and Start and End on time or sooner. I never schedule a meeting for LESS THAN 1 Hour. It is always better to be done in 30 minutes for a 1 hour scheduled meeting than to be finished in 45 min for a 30 minute scheduled meeting. People will be glad if you “GIVE BACK” some very valuable time to them, and they will be “FRUSTRATED” if you make them late for their next meeting by running your meeting late.

   In some cases, the meeting could be cut short if key people have to leave, making the meeting a total waste.

   Don’t worry if people react when you schedule a 3 hour meeting. If you are well prepared, and the meeting is effective, you can achieve the outcome and save everyone from several more meetings. They will definitely appreciate that and respect you for it.

   This doesn’t mean to rush things, make sure everyone gets a chance to provide input. Remember, that not all participants will be comfortable talking or sharing their thoughts and ideas. You may have to lead and encourage them to share.

4. Communicate results and follow up Action Items quickly. Don’t you hate it when you get meeting minutes weeks after the meeting (usually the day before the follow up meeting). Meeting Notes are supposed to help clarify the outcome of the meeting and help remind participants what follow up Action Items they are responsible for.

You may be saying, I have heard this all before, but knowing what to do and actually applying it are two different things. Here are some more tips for Effective Meetings that will save you LOTS of TIME and impress your Peers and Leadership.

TIPS IF YOU’RE THE MEETING LEADER

1. Write your Meeting Minutes BEFORE the Meeting. If it is important enough to meet, then it’s important enough to document and follow up. I like to use this simple format:
   

   • Date, Time and Place of the Meeting (Replace the Place with a Phone Number if it’s a Conference Call)
   • Attendees: and Excused: (List the names in Alphabetical Order, people will not try to read into the special order you placed the names in. Never use “Absent” it makes them seem like they didn’t think it was important to attend etc…) Refer back to, Are You a Servant Leader?, a previous post on ensuring that you always want to make others look good.
   • Project or Meeting Scope
   • Meeting Notes: (These are very generic) I try to use the next section more if possible.
   • Action Items: I Like a Table format here:
     

     ITEM # (for easy Reference)	WHO (Person Responsible)	WHAT (Specific Item to be Addressed)	WHEN (Deadline Task should be completed)	STATUS (Here you can add Comments or “COMPLETE” when the task is finished)
     1	Robert	Post Meeting Minutes on wiki for Team Follow up	Close of Business mm/dd/yyyy	COMPLETE
     2	Susan	Ensure Action Items are Communicate to Team Members not at this meeting	Close of Business mm/dd/yyyy
     3	TEAM MEMBERS	Update the status of your own Action Items in the wiki (PATH Included)	Close of Business mm/dd/yyyy	Ongoing

   • Next Meeting: (Identify the Next Meeting Date. This usually is discussed at the meeting or you’ve looked in advance to see if people’s schedules are available)

2. Now that you HAVE YOUR MINUTES practically done, you should be able to Create your Agenda from the High Level points. Send the Agenda out with the Meeting Invite. It can just be simple bullets in an email.
3. During the Meeting Update the Minutes you already Drafted. Make sure you have accurate records of who attended and update any new action items and or dates etc…
4. As soon as the meeting is over, you should be able to distribute the minutes usually within a few minutes. The sooner you get them out the better the impression you will leave. Over time you will get better and better at anticipating the issues and action items prior to the meeting.
5. Follow Up on the Action Items. I usually CUT and PASTE the Action Items into my Calendar on the date when I should send an email or call someone to ensure that the items are on track to meet the deadlines as discussed at the meeting. Keep people’s manager’s in the loop if needed to help support the outcome
6. Avoid “Pre-Meetings” with just managers. You may think you need a strategy session first, but these just waste people’s time and isolate other team members from being able to participate.
   

   Tell me & I’ll Forget
   Show Me & I’ll Remember
   Involve Me & I’ll Understand

   Remember collaboration and ‘Buy In’ are critical to the success of any project!

TIPS IF YOU’RE A PARTICIPANT

If you attend a meeting and it is POORLY RUN, you’re not alone. It happens all the time and to all of us. But Don’t Waste your Time by just daydreaming the time away, or doing other work and being rude. Try some of these:

1. Try to help save the meeting by contributing in a way to Make it Productive. Be careful not to make the Leader look Bad in the process (even if that is what you want to do).
2. Always be watching and reading what is going on. You will learn much from others that may help serve you later on.
3. Take some notes on how the Leader can improve future meetings and if you have a good enough relationship with the Leader, share your observations to help them. Be very careful and sensitive on how you approach this. Remember, you doing this to help the Leader LOOK GOOD, at least at the Next Meeting.

I hope some of these ideas may help you. What other tips work for you?