Meeting Management

Microsoft surveyed it's employees and found that most employees felt they wasted a lot of time in meetings that were unproductive. Now there's a surprise!

The further away employees get from the front lines of business the more time is spent in meetings (some useful, some not). The problem is probably a mix of - the quantity of meetings and the quality of meetings. By increasing quality the quantity can reduce.

Here are some basic tips to ensure your next meeting does not waste your time -

1. Have an agenda - if you fail to plan, you plan to fail..
2. Be flexible - if sticking to the agenda means you end up wasting time - throw out the agenda.
3. Have less meetings - multiply the number of hours spent in meetings by the cost of your hourly rate and them multiply that be the number of people in the meeting. Was the meeting worth that much?
4. Leave - if a meeting is going nowhere - excuse yourself.

Simple rules can allow others to be more effective in their use of their time.