by Julie Dellinger, Marketing Director
Did you know that if you google “I hate meetings” you get 27,200,000 results (in 0.22 seconds)? If you’re like me, you’re not really surprised by that amount of meeting frustration. Most people hate meetings because they feel that their time is wasted. As the meeting organizer, it should be your goal to help the meeting run smoother and accomplish what you’ve set out to do.
Here are some tricks I’ve found really do help:
• Have an agenda and stick to it. Send the agenda out to the meeting attendees before the meeting so that everyone knows what to expect. If you have a decision that must be made, put that on the agenda.
• Show up on time and encourage everyone else to do the same.
• If it is going to be a long meeting, assign someone the job of being the “dead horse beater”. When the meeting just keeps going in circles without any decisions being made, this person speaks up when you’re beating the proverbial dead horse and guides the meeting back on track.
• Make an action list and make sure that someone is in charge of each item on that list. It’s very easy to walk away from a meeting with a list of things that were discussed, and then throw it on your desk to have it buried within a couple hours and never thought of again. If you’re the person who called the meeting, make it a habit to create a quick list of tasks that came out of the meeting. Every single item on the list should have someone’s name next to it that’s in charge of completing that item. If there is a deadline involved, add that to the list so that everyone is clear on your expectations.
By having a confident attitude and a clear plan, your chances of running a productive meeting are greatly increased. Of course, you could kick it up a notch like this hilarious Careerbuilder commercial.