http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-23/
Scott Adams, in this very classic representation of office humor, depicts what can go wrong with a real-time office meeting. The primary reason why office meetings are usually considered to be a waste of time and unproductive is because they are poorly planned. With a little bit of preparation even a small meeting that lasts for just a few minutes can turn out to be the most effective way to establish clear communication within a team.
Here are a few guidelines for planning and executing an effective meeting:
1) Agenda: Any meeting should have a purpose. If it’s an emergency meeting or even if it’s just a routine weekly meeting to update the progress status of individual members; an agenda needs to be prepared. Many a times the agenda is prepared by the team supervisor and contains a brief on the points that need to be discussed during the meeting. It should ideally be a text document of not more than a page consisting of points logically grouped together. Responsibilities can be assigned to people in the agenda. E.g., Project Manager Bob may designate the responsibility of preparing minutes of the meeting/writing notes to the team secretary Amber.
2) Sending out the invites : A list of people required to be a part of the meeting needs to be made and invites (along with the meeting agenda) need to be sent accordingly. It wouldn’t make sense for Project Manager Bob to exclude Chris the technical developer for a meeting meant to discuss deployment plans for the company's latest software product!
3) Deciding the time and venue: The best time to hold a weekly status meeting would be on Tuesday morning. Mondays are usually hectic for all. Avoid having meetings post-lunch or Friday evenings. The venue should ideally be centrally located to all the team members.
4) Modifying the agenda: The agenda should incorporate changes as suggested by the members attending the meeting. Making changes to the original agenda is essential to include points that may be considered important for the project and its individuals. Getting feedback is essential to ensure an active involvement from all at the meeting.
5) At the meeting :
a) Arrive a couple of minutes in advance before the meeting starts. Everybody's time is important and its best to start the meeting on time.
b) Taking notes and carrying calendars will help members take notes and mark important dates as relevant to the project.
c) A leader needs to steer the discussion forward. A forum can be a melting pot of numerous ideas, some conflicting and such a discussion can lead to nowhere in the absence of a moderator or a person with authority to take things forward.
d) Points need to be stated with clarity and need to be relevant to what is being discussed. Most of the meetings that I have attended have not been productive as many participants got carried away and started to bring up issues which were not in sync with what was stated on the agenda.
e) Respect other people's opinions. Stating your opinions aggressively will not help in reaching a consensus and goes against the very reason for holding a meeting in the first place.
f) Set clear goals, specify deadlines and ensure that responsibilities are chalked out clearly to every individual.
g) The leader should ensure that the participants stick to their time; bad meetings can go on forever.
h) If a meeting has been stretched on for beyond the stipulated time, it makes more sense to defer the discussion to another time.
g) An effective meeting should meet its objective within the given time span.
With a little preparation your meeting can be a hit. A meeting is a success when people come out of it feeling like they have accomplished something!
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