Meetings, Meetings and More Meetings!

As a manager, you have to hold and conduct meetings. There's no choice, because meetings are necessary under some circumstances. Too often, though, we call a meeting as a kneejerk reaction to something that happens. But sometimes we could deal with the issue without all the disruption caused by bringing people together for a meeting. So Helen's number one rule for meaningful meetings is:

Call only necessary meetings.

Could a series of phone calls, an e-mail or a memo serve the same purpose? Could you just walk down the hall and have a quick chat with someone and solve the problem without a full-blown meeting?

Are you calling a meeting for Monday morning because you always meet on Monday morning? That's a stupid reason for dragging people away from their offices to sit around a table and talk. In later posts I'll give you some tips to eliminate unnecessary regular meetings and, if you must hold them, to make them more effective.

Develop a reputation for calling meetings only when necessary, and people will be more willing to devote their time to them.

For more on "Helen's 9 Rules for Meaningful Meetings", visit http://www.mhwcom.com/pages/messrecundbook.html and read about "Message Received and Understood!"