COMMON MISTAKES IN THE RUNNING OF MEETINGS

One module that is always included in the Business Communication courses I have taught is meeting management/ effective communication for meetings.

My observation is there are several common mistakes made in the organization, running, and planning of meetings….

1.) Going into a meeting without a clear objective….Having formal meetings to kick ideas around without first having arranged the frame work for the proceedings or just having a meeting “because we haven’t had one in awhile” (as an old employer of mine used to do)….Meetings are meant to solve problems and and introduce policy….Other than that they are a waste of time….There should always be time for feedback at the end.

2.) Ineffective Time Management….Spending too little or the usual problem too much time on one single issue leads to a meeting that is not effective as objectives are not met….Meetings need a firm moderator with the ability to move it along at the right pace.

3.) Calling last minutes meetings for non-emergencies….Participants in meetings should always be given a fair amount of warning unless it is an emergency otherwise you will have a distracted and frustrated audience one they realize the meeting could have been scheduled for another time as well as non-attendance from those unable to get away from prior commitments.

4.) Too many meetings….Management in all businesses have to meet on a regular business….This is how they communicate important information to each other and also how they discuss the future of the business….However, the rank and file of any given business or other entity be it school, government agency, etc. should not be meeting too frequently….If there is, there’s very likely a problem somewhere

5.) Meetings as time wasters….Once, when a meeting ended slightly before the time it was scheduled to, the manager started doing some silly teambuilding games that took even more time and we ended up getting out later.

What do all of the above situations have in common?

The absence of an agenda clearly stating the order of topics….You can go so far as to include goals in your agenda as well.

The agenda of a meeting should always be planned and written well in advance.

Time management is one of the if not THE most underrated part of management and meetings are one of the most abused areas….Running successful meetings is one of the indicators of how successful a company is in other areas….