7 MYTHS ABOUT MEETINGS- Busted -

A Melissa J Choo presentation

#1 Meetings are NECESSARY

THE FACTMeetings incur hourly COSTS to the organization

But we often FAIL TO QUESTIONAre those issues which cannot be handled effectively outside a meeting? Will the meeting add value?

#2 A ROUGH AGENDA will suffice

What’s the PURPOSE of the meeting?

Brainstorm?

Solve problems?

Make decisions?

BUT

What do you want to ACHIEVE at the end of the meeting?

Great ideas?

Solutions to problems?

Decisions?

#3 Meetings should try to cover as MANY TOPICS as possible

Instead of frantically LISTING meeting topics..

Start with a CLEAR SCOPE

LIMIT agenda items Focus on achieving a

CLEAR OUTCOME

#4 LONGER but less frequent meetings are more effective

This leads to INFORMATION OVERLOAD.People work more effectively over short periods of time.

Plan SMALL MEETINGS that focus on

one or two issues.This allows you to match experts

with issues for more productive

meetings.

#5 There is no time for THOROUGH PREPARATION

People are TOO BUSY meeting OTHER DEADLINES. Preparation for meetings becomes a lower priority.

Nonetheless, BUY-IN comes from a convincing pitch.People expect to be IMPRESSED.

If presenting at a meeting, REHEARSE BEFOREHAND.

TEST YOUR DEMO more than once. If you discover FUNCTIONAL GLITCHES..

There’s time to FIX IT

In addition..Always have a BACK-UP PLAN..

Especially one that is equally likely to

IMPRESS

#6 Answer questions SPONTANEOUSLY

You’ll want to avoid the embarrassment of not having the answers or appearing DUMBSTRUCK

ANTICIPATE questions,PREPARE the answers &ANSWER with FINESSE

#7 Going through MINUTES is unnecessary

Minutes TRACK action items, RECORD decisions & INFORM others

They can be an important point of REFERENCE..

RECORD KEY IDEAS, AGREEMENTS &ACTION POINTS

Go through FINAL MEETING MINUTES & COMPARE what was written to what you have

recorded

Check that all ACTION POINTS & TASK LIST with people responsible & timelines are

accurate

All images from www.flickr.com

Thank You!Leave a comment or get in touch to discuss!

A Melissa J Choo presentation