8 •
The Lion King
• July - September 2017
Business
HOLDING SHORT AND
EFFECTIVE MEETINGS
By Olawale Hamed
•
To review / measure progress:
It
is important to take time off the
high octane daily work schedule
to review what has been done so
far, identify if we are still on course
towards achieving our assigned
objectives or otherwise.
However, in order to ensure the
foregoing reasons are met, it
is important that we save time by
holding short meetings that would not
bore people to death, stifle initiative
and morale or even confuse staff
further instead of providing them with
clear information.
Thus the following tips are considered
useful in holding short and effective
meetings:
1. Do you really need to have
a meeting?
Before ringing the bell to summon all
for a meeting, first take time to reflect,
do we really need to hold a meeting,
or can other means of communication
such as group email simply suffice?
2. Keep the meeting small
The convener(s) of the meeting must
also decide who should attend the
meeting, what value do they bring?
According to the Harvard Business
Review, bigger meetings tend to be
less effective. They also tend to be
longer as too many people have
something to say of which some points
though important could have been
passed on via other means. Smaller
meetings also mean reduced costs
of entertainment, transportation and
other costs incident upon bringing
people together.
3. Make the agenda clear
It always helps when the agenda of
a meeting has been clearly itemized
and circularized at least 24 hours
before the meeting is scheduled to
hold. This helps attendees prepare
ahead and generally reduces time
spent seeking clarifications instead of
proffering solutions.
4. Request that everyone
stand
If possible, try to hold stand-up
meetings. Quite naturally, stand up
meetings tend to go more quickly and
are more productive as people tend
to think faster on their feet rather than
when lounging in a comfortable chair.
5. Project meeting notes on a
screen
It is important to have a projector
to project meeting notes or just a
simple white board and markers
ready to help the speaker make
written or pictorial notes that would
enhance quick understanding and
consequently shorter time will be spent
in the meeting room.
6. End by assigning action
items
It is important to allocate tasks or
action items at the end of a
meeting otherwise all the time spent
on the meeting will be for naught.
Consequently, nothing gets done
after the meeting until someone
realizes this aberration and then calls
for another meeting to remind people
that nothing was taken away from the
previous meeting.
T
he business meeting is the bane of
our professional lives. According
to a recent survey, managers
spend on average between 35 – 50%
of their time in meetings – some of
which extend into weekends. This is a
lot, all things considered. One might
be compelled to ask, wouldn’t it be
better to get rid of meetings entirely?
Quite unlikely due to the following
reasons:
•
To provide information:
meetings
form a good platform for providing
information to the workforce.
Information could be on strategies,
market information, product
information, etc depending on the
industry.
•
Decision making:
Meetings are
also useful in helping to provide a
mechanism for decision making.
Information is shared, ideas are put
forward and decisions could then
be reached accordingly.
