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Creating A Culture Of Productive Meetings

Creating A Culture Of Productive Meetings
by Catherine Iste

Did you know meetings can actually be productive? This is not fake news.

As leaders, it is up to us to ensure all the meetings within our organization are an efficient and effective use of staff time. Here are three steps to create the space, system and culture for productive meetings.

What's the problem?

Just like employee surveys provide insight into organizational issues, a targeted assessment of meetings provides valuable data to address issues. The issues with meetings vary widely.

For example, are there too many meetings that the sheer volume is wasting time? Are the meetings not productive because they are too structured or not structured enough? Or is it a system issue? In other words, do the available meeting spaces or technology tools not sufficiently address the needs of the participants?

There are so many ways each meeting can go wrong that an audit is essential in unwinding the issues and determining the possible solutions.

An observational assessment is the simplest way to get a picture of the meeting landscape in a small organization. Assign one or two employees to work together to tally all the meetings, categorize them and capture the details (attendees, agenda, timing, etc.) into a table.

For larger organizations, a designated employee should be assigned to work with IT and HR to create a simple survey — like Weight Watchers did — that captures the immediate feedback of meeting participants.

One size does not fit all

Knowing the problems are great, it is important to understand that one solution will not address everything. Just like meetings can go wrong in so many ways, there are also so many different types of meetings that it would be counterproductive to force one meeting template on staff.

Read full article on MultiBriefs.