This months BRW magazine has a nice little article on “the madness of meetings.” The article offers 3 interesting tips for getting more value out of meetings. In addition to the usual advice (such as set an agenda, record actions and assign responsibilities and distribute minutes documenting the decisions reached and the timelines for actioning the action points), the article suggests:
- Schedule the meeting off the hour (e.g. 10:10AM instead of 10AM) and declare its length beforehand
- At the meeting start time, start talking about the first agenda item – don’t stop for latecomers, don’t backtrack for them, and don’t acknowledge their lateness
- At the end of the meeting declare it closed and stand up
All three points emphasise psychologically that the meeting is at a very specific time, and time is valuable. The second point emphasises that the meeting time is as scheduled – it’s not dependent on people drifting in and out when people are ready.
The article also talks about facilitating meetings as a skill, to be cultivated developed by individuals within an organisation.
Google and 37 signals on meeting advice: http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2006/09/29/meeting-like-google/