Improving the quality of your time Using waiting time effectively

Getting the most out of meetings

Just as jobs that you do have a cost, the meetings that you attend have a cost, not only of your time but also that of the other attendees. You should ask yourself whether the benefit of the meeting has been worth the time invested in both the meeting and the preparation for it. Was your contribution worth your investment?

This section explains how to run a meeting in the most effective way possible, and then how to get the most out of meetings that you attend.

Running Meetings

1. Hold meetings only when trigger events occur

In many cases it is much more effective to agree to hold meetings only when specific trigger events show them to be necessary. As an example, a manager may propose a meeting when he or she projects that resource difficulties may be encountered, and needs a decision on how to handle this.

By scheduling meetings to occur on trigger events, you can ensures that time is invested in the solution of a problem only when it is needed.

2. Use the Agenda Effectively

Using an agenda helps to focus the meeting, stopping it drifting off-topic. If you circulate it sufficiently far in advance, it allows people to prepare fully for the meeting so the meeting does not stall for lack of information.

Where many people are to attend the meeting, it may be beneficial for a small expert subcommittee to meet to prepare the agenda.

3. Setting the time of the meeting

• Where people tend to waffle excessively, you can schedule the meeting just before lunch or going home. This gives people an incentive to be brief
• Alternatively where other people are time conscious, writing the cost per minute of the meeting on a flip chart can have a focusing effect.
• Where people tend to turn up late, start a meeting at an unusual time, e.g. 19 minutes past the hour. This seems to improve punctuality.
• If possible, ensure that the meeting starts on time - where it starts late, time of all the attendees is being wasted waiting for the start. If late-comers are not critically needed, start without them.

4. Other Useful Techniques

• You should only bring the minimum number of attendees to a meeting - the more people are present, the more will want to air their views. Similarly, bringing people who are not needed to a meeting wastes their time.
• Ensure that decisions taken at previous meetings have been acted on. This ensures that the meeting will not just be seen as a 'talking-shop'.
• At the end of the meeting, summarise the points discussed, and make an action plan out of the decisions taken. This ensures that everyone understands what has been decided, and who will do what.

Attending Meetings

• on time, and present only if needed
• well prepared and briefed on your contribution
• attentive to the discussion so that your contribution does not repeat someone else's
• involved in the discussion
• and brief, relevant, focussed and courteous in your interventions

Summary

If you are running a meeting, use an agenda to focus discussion. Use the time set for the meeting as a tool for getting around bad habits of attendees if necessary. Summarising the meeting with an action plan ensures that everyone knows what has been decided.