| Do you hate bad meetings? I do too. Avoid these 5 Mistakes |
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I Hate Bad Meetings! Avoid These 5 Meeting Mistakes
Do you want people to show up at your next meeting? Then don't do stupid stuff! |
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I hate bad meetings. And believe me, I have attended my share of them. Something tells me you have attended your share as well.
Here are five meeting mistakes you must avoid.
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1. Start late. I am one, if I can, who tries to get to meetings a little early. Doing so allows me time to prepare.
One sure way for me to know this will be a bad meeting is when the one who called the meeting shows up late or waits for everyone who is late. 90% of the time I am correct in my assessment.
Of course there are reasons once in a while why a meeting might not start on time. But most of the time it is the lack of organizational skills of the meeting facilitator.
2. End late. At the start of the meeting have you ever heard the facilitator say “we should get done early today?” When I hear that I start preparing myself for a meeting that is going to end late.
Ending late is a waste of time. Most participants have already checked out once the clock begins ticking past the time allotted. The only thing they are thinking about is how to politely excuse themselves so they can get to the next bad meeting.
3. Get complete agreement on every issue. Don’t you love it when there has been healthy debate on an issue and everyone has expressed their thoughts and opinions?
And just when you think a decision has been made and you are done, the meeting leader asks, “does anyone else have something to say?” She then lets silence work until someone rehashes, rephrases and revisits something that has already been discussed.
At some point a decision has to be made. Those in the meeting need to support the decision. They don’t have to agree, just support. Meeting leaders that attempt to get everyone to agree to decisions will find themselves in the next meeting talking about the same things again.
4. Invite everyone. While there is always someone who might have their feelings hurt because their not invited to an “important” meeting; most of us just want to be included when we need to be. We have too much work as it is.
But for some reason meeting organizers give little thought to wasting others time in meetings.
Ask the following questions next time you are thinking about inviting someone:
– Is the information in this meeting important to this persons job?
– Can this person provide an opinion that is of value to this meeting?
– And if the answer is yes to either, do they need to attend the entire meeting or just a part?
5. End meetings with unclear action items. At the end of every meeting one of the most important things a meeting leader can do is review and ensure everyone understands what has been discussed, decided upon, what action is being taken and who has responsibility for it.
There are other meeting mistakes you want to avoid as well such as a lack of an agenda, tolerating unproductive side meetings and not encouraging participation.
I have listed my top five meeting mistakes that result in bad meetings, what are yours?
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