HRM Coaching Blog

Meetings are often the backbone of most managers’ days. But they have a habit of descending into a spiral of existing just for the sake of it, and can actually end up hampering productivity and performance instead of enhancing it.

Most managers tend to fall into two groups when it comes to meetings. Some love them and hold them frequently, while others avoid them like the plague. The reasons for the often strong reactions for and against meetings all make sense when you consider their uses and how they can be abused.

On the plus side meetings can help to promote a dialogue between co-workers, and bring to light any issues or problems that managers may not previously have been aware of. On the negative side meetings that are poorly planned or even unnecessary can waste valuable time that could be better spent doing something else.

It helps to have some kind of policy in place with regards to meetings – even if it is only for your own personal use. Some kind of regular meeting to touch base with your co-workers is always a good idea, but this should be held no more than once a week.

Every time you consider holding a new meeting, ask yourself what the purpose of that meeting is. Is there a new contract or job that your team needs to be properly briefed on? If so make sure you have time to prepare and set an appropriate time and date for the meeting to take place.

If on the other hand you simply need to alert your co-workers to some new general information, is there really a need to hold a meeting at all? A simple memo would probably do away with a significant amount of the smaller meetings that take place countrywide every single day.

The golden rule for planning any meeting is to ask yourself whether the time you will be taking away from the working day is better spent in the meeting. If it is then you know there is a need for it. If the answer is no, then at least you can stop short of planning a meeting that isn’t required.

For those meetings you do go ahead with, time should still be of the essence. Letting even the most vital meetings run on longer than necessary can be counterproductive. Making sure you stay focused and concentrate only on the subject in hand will help you to conduct better, faster and more productive meetings every single time.

---

Planning a difficult meeting? HRM Coaching offers facilitation services which will help you to achieve your objectives for the meeting. We help you prepare and help you to chair the meeting so that all issues are discussed, everyone is heard and that time is not lost going round in circles or on unproductive discussions. Call Hannah McNamara on 020 7939 9910 to find out more.

---

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.