Meeting Preparation - What does it take to be really
ready?
Brian Egan, Global Knowledge
Instructor
Preparing for a meeting has two phases. In the first you decide
whether a meeting is necessary. In the second phase you act on the
decision to have a meeting.
First Phase - will a meeting work?
Meetings are notoriously unproductive and everyone knows it.
Without a lot of planning and effort, meetings can waste a lot of
time. Therefore it seems sensible to consider all alternatives to
having a meeting before selecting such an inefficient tool. Could
some other process produce the same results with less effort?
How about circulating a document that raises the questions and
discussion points that would have been on a meeting agenda?
Everyone is invited to add their comments relating to each issue in
a round robin style of debate.
After a few rounds, the instigator collates the comments and
tries to draw conclusions from the debate. If there is no
conclusion, the debate continues.
Using an 'iterative document' allows everyone to have their say
in an orderly way. Unfortunately the process can be slow and not
everyone likes to put their comments in writing.
Whose time is being saved?
My experience has been that iterative documents can work very
well. They are popular in organizations that recognize the real
cost of meetings and where decision makers are widely dispersed.
They may not save the meeting owner any time, but they certainly
can save the organization time and money.
When a meeting owner is expected to pay for the time of everyone
at a meeting, plus their travel costs, alternatives to conventional
meetings start to look good.
Cost
At the root of any decision should be a comparison of the costs
and benefits of meetings versus the alternatives. How can decisions
be reached without meeting? What are the alternatives, pros and
cons, costs and benefits?
The problem is that the metrics for this type of comparison are
sadly lacking. The logic is sound, but the analysis is necessarily
biased. It would be nice if systematic comparison were
possible.
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