120 likes | 324 Views
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings by ERIC MATSON. Web Article Summary By Aaron Hauber Enlish 393 section 501. Why Are Meetings Important?. Meetings are the most universal -- and universally despised -- part of business life. Bad meeting make bad companies
E N D
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetingsby ERIC MATSON Web Article Summary By Aaron Hauber Enlish 393 section 501
Why Are Meetings Important? • Meetings are the most universal -- and universally despised -- part of business life. • Bad meeting make bad companies • An organization's culture is perpetuated from its meetings.
Jon Ryburg • Recommends that companies double their meeting space if they have not done so in the past 20 years. • Reason: “More and more companies are team-based companies, and in team-based companies most work gets done in meetings.”
Sin #1 • “People don't take meetings seriously. They arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their time doodling.” • Solution: Make employees believe that meetings are real work. • Make meetings uptime rather then downtime • Have structured agendas, clear goals, paths that you're going to follow.
Sin #2: • “Meetings are too long. They should accomplish twice as much in half the time.” • Solution: Realize how much long meetings cost • Meetings should be no longer then 90 minutes • Use technology to get more ideas out faster. • Groupware allows more than one person to talk at a time.
Sin #3 • ”People wander off the topic. Participants spend more time digressing than discussing.” • Solution: Follow agendas. • Leave distractions in the “parking lot” • Allow agendas to circulate around the office before meetings to permit modifications where needed. • Establish voting methods
Sin #4 • “Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People don't convert decisions into action.” • Solution: have someone take minutes • Easy to distribute • Outlines what was talked about at the meeting so that people can see what they are responsible for.
Sin #5 • “People don't tell the truth. There's plenty of conversation, but not much candor.” • Solution: Anonymity • Use groupware to allow ideas to be submitted anonymously. • Allows passive employees to give ideas without being over powered by others.
Sin #6 • “Meetings are always missing important information, so they postpone critical decisions.” • Solution: Turn meeting rooms into computer labs • Allows employees to show and see real data
Sin #7 • “Meetings never get better. People make the same mistakes.” • Solution: Practice makes perfect. • Observe what works and what doesn't and hold people accountable for change.
Reference Matson, Eric. "The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings." Fast Company 1996: n. pag. Web. 31 Oct 2010. <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/ 02/meetings.html?page=0,3>.