Why is it so hard to run an effective, efficient meeting?

[PVnRT]

Yeah, it's management-speak, but it's also true. Meetings are non-value added activities for the most part, i.e., complete fucking wastes of time.

I just spent 25 minutes in a meeting that could've been completed in five. Instead, someone says something tangential the topic hand, then someone else just HAS to chime in with their five cents, then someone else, then the original person....and on and on....

Maybe I just don't get people who feel the need to talk all of the fucking time. The sad thing is, it's not even the engineer geeks doing it most of the time (although one is awfully guilty).

[DS1]

1. It's like that where I work

I often give up and leave. A simple "Hey, what if we did this" turns into how much someone paid for coffee the other day, and how it wasn't like that when they were in Vienna.

FUCK YOU!

[PVnRT]

2. Damn straight

Unfortunately, getting up and leaving is not really an option here.

[TZ]

3. Exactly!

Its gotten so bad that our bi-weekly team meetings were cut back from 90 minutes to 60 minutes to adjust to everyone's schedule and we STILL get out of there 10-15 minutes late...:banghead:

[DS1]

4. That's why I hate conference calls with these jokers from a huge national bank

chain which shall go unmentioned. Holy shit, they were talking about a facebook implementation, and it immediately diverted into veiled come-ons and uncomfortable (and obvious) jokes about sex predators. Look, why don't you three just go fuck each others brains out and get back to us. By the time you come back we'll have figured out what's so obviously difficult for your feeble brains to figure out, so quit interjecting with bullshit, go get yourselves in a hot sweaty mess of sex, and let the professionals do our thing.


:nuke:

[Rambis]

8. Try not to have meetings

without clear objectives as to what needs to be accomplished. IE do we need a decision on something? Is it a brain storming session etc. Clear objectives are a must! I can gage a the success or failure of a meeting by who I see is attending. If I see two particular names I know the thing will last 3 hours and we will go off on all sorts of tangents. I do not run those meetings or they would not happen.
good luck

[PVnRT]

9. I agree completely

Unfortunately, I'm never in charge of meetings, primarily because if I have a lead role on something, I ask people for information as I need it. I've never led a project where there was a need for a meeting at all - tell people via email or in person what you need from them, and trust them to get it done.

[Rambis]

13. frustrating

hang tough!

[havocmom]

14. Yep! Is it a brain storm/jam session or for decision/direction gathering?

If the former, make sure participants KNOW what needs to be approached for creative exercise, that they might actually do some background work and have time to brew things up in their heads WELL BEFORE meeting. That helps really bring in some ideas to start with. Then, meeting can be about everyone adding too, correcting problems, HONING the ideas.

If the latter, make sure participants KNOW what will need to be decided; give them the pertinent information and/or resources, let them know they are EXPECTED to come to meeting with that information processed so there can be a final resolution.

Most meetings are not productive because they are not well planned. That means people HAVE TO KNOW what is expected of them, of the meeting, and have the tools to come ready to get things done.

[underpants]

5. You've never met my co-worker

she actually plans meetings TO last 2-3 hours. All afternoon. Seriously.

Our boss (of the many we have) has actually put the keebosh on a couple of them with "I can't stay more than 30 minutes". My coworker looked so downcast that you would have thought that THIS was the highlight of her week.....it is

She really needs to find some sort of human interaction

[Darth_Kitten]

6. I'm missing one at work today........

darn......I'll have somebody fill me in I'm sure.....

I don't like going because somebody gets confused and gets the rumour mill churning so later, after the meeting, people are running to management for clarification. Or the Union. Whatever..... :eyes:

we are moving towards a centralized call centre so I'm pretty sure it's about redeployment choices, blah blah blah. Or maybe not.

[BOSSHOG]

7. Strong leadership, specific agenda, time keeper

No meandering off the topic WHICH ALL PARTICIPANTS SHOULD KNOW WELL AHEAD OF TIME. The meeting will start at exactly X oclock and end at X oclock.

I recall (as if yesterday) a New Admiral checked onboard; one of my few Naval Heroes. During his first meeting he said that meetings were a place were participants could prove themselves either assets or liabilities to him. That our time was too valuable to waste sitting around a table creating nothing. He was a very nice guy but he took his meetings seriously.

He went on to say that the power of an organization is directly proportional to the number of meetings it holds. The more meetings, the less power.

Our future meetings were posterboards for efficiency.

[PVnRT]

10. Is he looking for a job?

We could use him around here as a meeting facilitator.

I believe you mean inversely proportional, by the way. I correct you because I'm a dick.

[BOSSHOG]

11. Sadly

he died about five years ago, but continues to be my hero. Definitely had the leadership qualities. I bow to your English prowess. I discovered that many who came to meetings found it a time to catch up and socialize; seeking solutions became a secondary agenda. If the guy sitting up front allows it to happen then so be it.

[Sannum]

12. I loathe meetings.

Where I work, we have meetings to schedule a meeting.

[NJmaverick]

15. Meetings can be very useful, but there are two big problems

1) So people tend to just want to meet, for the sake of meeting, rather than because they have something to meet about.

2) No one does their homework. A well run meeting needs the person running it to have laid out the goals and a path to achiving them. The person calling the meeting often has to get the people attending to do things before they arrive, so that they are fully prepared to resolve the problem or meet their objective. The person running the meeting has to ensure the meeting stays on track, and doesn't go off on a tangent.


So meetings can be quite useful, but it takes talented and driven people to make them so.

[TZ]

18. I dunno

Where I work no one really wants to go to the meetings. It takes us forever to agree on things and even after that we have to rehash the decision over and over and over and over...

[NJmaverick]

19. In one of my jobs I was sent to a week long training to become a facilitator

They taught us how to prevent that sort of time wasting meandering. It's a matter of focusing (or defining) on the problem or goal, developing ways to solve the problem or achieving the goal, enacting the solution and then following up to ensure the solution was effective. For every step of the process there are tools and tricks that can be used to move it along.

[TZ]

20. But what do you do...

When the person who calls/heads the meetings is the person who can't stop rehashing things..and god help us if someone volunteers a new piece of information...:argh:

[NJmaverick]

22. Get them to hire a facilitator? Seriously, that's why I said people's inabiltity to run

meetings it the biggest cause of the waste of time. If I were in you situaiton, I would just not go (if that was an option) and when asked why I wasn't showing up, I would tell them why. If you are on good terms with the person that is running the poor meeting, you might want to talk to them. Sort of gently point out how it doesn't seem like much is getting done at the meetings. Failing these options get a blackberry loaded with games, so you can play games (while people are assuming you are checking on an important email).

[TZ]

23. Unfortunately..She's the head of the lab...

Everyone is kind of afraid to say boo to her...

[NJmaverick]

26. Sorry to hear that

[Hand]

16. Insh'Allah. nt

[kentauros]

17. I actually like the meetings we have at this tiny pipeline-engineering company ;)

Then again, we have only about ten people in our office (maybe 12 in the whole company) and the owner/president is such a nice and knowledgeable guy.

Usually meetings are only one or two of the designers, the design/drafting manager and one of the engineers. We certainly "shoot the shit" for a bit, then get into the meat of things. I always ask questions about things I don't quite understand as well as point out observations I've had. Sometimes things "stray" from exactly what we are meeting about, but no one has ever complained (that I know of.) I have sat through "structured" meetings at other engineering companies before and often find myself falling asleep. I'll take the relaxed but productive kinds we have here anyday :D

[Deep13]

21. Because they are people, not gears in a machine.

that's why

[Orsino]

24. I'd like you to hold that question until we get to new business, m'kay?

Now, any other volunteers for the Quality Fair before we move onto the breakroom committee?

[lizerdbits]

25. There's 2 people in charge of 90% of my meetings

One has the nickname RePeter because he just goes on and on about the same stuff. Really nice guy though and very knowledgeable.

The other is my boss who needs some mood stabilizers. She never plans or asks people to do things, she waits until the meeting and then angrily asks why you haven't finished it yet, followed by an eyeroll. (When I first started I thought I was forgetting what she said but it happens over and over and to everyone else too.) Then she complains that we're never going to get this done because all these preliminary things, that she only asked people to do in her head, aren't done, followed by an eyeroll. And to end every meeting there is the comment about how either all her work gets taken from her or there's some kind of conspiracy out to get her. One day I'm going to get up the nerve to ask "Is it company wide or just this site that wants to destroy you?" :rofl: