This is the final part of a three part series on Planning for Success! The topic for today is how to control the loss of your work time by attending unproductive meetings. It is necessary to evaluate the usefulness of meetings before you agree to attend them. It is important to meet with individuals personally, but again only if the time spent is productive. Often the staff is required to meet in a conference room when a concise email could easily distribute the information more effectively and efficiently. Joint emails can allow for feedback and questions about the email content and doesn’t require the physical presence of the entire staff.
It is difficult to start the work week if a weekly staff meeting has been scheduled for Monday morning. The best time for a staff meeting is not on Monday and in the afternoon. A possible time would be Tuesdays as 3 o’clock. This allows team members to deal with the “hot” issues from Monday and time to reflect on topics that need to be discussed for planning for the rest of the week or longer term issues.
The time allowed for a staff meeting should be limited to approximately 30 minutes. Studies indicate that individuals can stay focused for approximately 18 minutes. In order to maintain a tight meeting schedule, prepare and distribute a meeting agenda in the day prior the meeting. Allow time for the staff to prepare for the meeting. It is not always necessary to sit during the entire meeting. A variation of walking and standing may increase the interest of the staff and decrease the boredom of continuous sitting.
Often the purpose of a meeting is to make a decision about some issue. Allow team members the discretion to make decisions on their own. If a joint meeting is required, formulate a standardized system to make decisions in order to control wasted time and energy. If it requires a team decision, plan that the staff meets at a time that allows the staff to eat prior the meeting. You want the staff to concentrate on the issue and not their stomach.
If the meeting is not mandatory, the individual team members should critically analyze the purpose and goal of the meeting prior acceptance to attend. Requesting clarification regarding the meeting can often result in a quick email or phone call that replaces the need for a meeting. Try not to attend meetings that are not essential to meeting the goals of your daily or weekly plans.
