Don't Tolerate Unproductive Meetings

Have you ever sat in a meeting and thought "well, here's an hour (or two) of my life I'll never get back...?"

Most people have. We get stuck in unproductive meetings. We find ourselves wondering why they couldn't just have sent an email. Or we wonder why they had a meeting at all, since nothing is getting done.

Bad meetings result in the single biggest waste of time in organizational life.

In my workshops I tell people that "you are hereby empowered. You no longer need sit thru an unproductive meeting ever again. If you have the courage."

If you have the courage to lead from the back of the room. If you have the courage to lead from any chair. If you have the courage to grab that moment of unproductive noise and make a suggestion. Make a recommendation. Redirect the group. You probably know already that you are not the only person in the room who feels the meeting slipping away. Redirect it.

Risky? Sure. You might need to build some relationships in the room first in order to do it. You do not necessarily want to do this the first time people meet you. But, to sit thru endless and countless nonproductive meetings is a very special kind of masochistic, and that's probably not for you.

High performance leaders do not tolerate unproductive meetings.

Stand up. Raise your hand. Raise your voice. Do what it takes to take charge and redirect that opportunity. The people in the room will thank you.

-- Doug Smith

Are you looking for ways to make your own meetings more productive? Please contact me about bringing a workshop or webinar to your organization.

Contact me here: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Comments

Plan to Celebrate

I am not good at celebrating, and yet celebrating is motivational. Because of that, I need to PLAN to celebrate or it will pass me right by. That also means that in order to see the plan to celebrate thru, there must be something worth celebrating, which means doing the work to achieve the goal. Your goal is easier to achieve when you make energizing progress and then celebrate it. It's not either or -- it's both and: progress (doing the work) and celebration (rewarding yourself and others for that success.) What do you think? -- doug smith

You're the Leader

What's next? Everyday there is some new challenge and everyday there are multiple ways to handle each challenge. People are waiting for answers without even understanding the questions. Where does that leave you? The best we can ever do is to make things better. Start with one thing at a time and grow. I don't do nearly enough of this, but I'm willing to ramp it up. How about you? Lead the way to something better and people will follow you. -- doug smith Call to Action: Make a list (a very short list!) of problems you'd like solved or projects you'd like to do. Prioritize the list. Start working on number one. Do something.

What Secret?

How secret is that secret? Secrets are told when people think that no one is listening. Some one is always listening. That's how secrets get out. -- doug smith

Maybe Start With A Smile...

How do you react when you meet someone new? They're not new to the world, of course, just to you but that's new enough, isn't it? What if they disagree with you? What if you're on different sides of an issue? What if you don't know? People desire respect. When respect is lacking, we know it right away, don't we? And when we withhold our own respect it stands to reason that others know that right away, too. But if we start with respect -- if we start with the idea that every person we meet has value -- it becomes easier to interact meaningfully and maybe even share common ground. When we connect with respect we dramatically increase our chances of communicating effectively. I'll do my best to practice that today -- how about you? -- doug smith

Start With Calm

It's amazing how many problems stop being problems once we are centered and calm. -- doug smith

Questions for Hitting Your Goal

If you usually hit your goal you'll usually hit your goal. To do that, to usually hit your goal, get into the habit of hitting your goal. Questions to ask to prepare yourself for achieving your goal include: Do you know why you want to achieve your goal? Do you have everything you need to achieve your goal? How committed are you to achieving your goal? Who do you need help from in order to achieve your goal? What might get in the way of achieving your goal? How will you break your goal down into smaller pieces? How will you measure your progress and results? What will it give you to achieve your goal? We're all so busy. It that goal isn't important enough to answer those questions clearly then maybe it's not important enough to achieve. Pause, breathe, ask, then act. -- doug smith

Convince Yourself

How important is that goal, really? How deeply do you believe in the importance of that goal? It's easy, but silly, for us to fool ourselves. Either the goal REALLY matters or it does not. Design a plan to achieve your goal that is so persuasive you won't be tempted to ignore it. Then do it. Act relentlessly on your plan. -- doug smith

Make It a Goal

Take your problems seriously, then take them away. Find out what it is about the problem that is standing in your way. What is it that you really want? What is your goal? Once you convert your problem statement to a goal you've opened the door to a thousand new possibilities. Your answer is in there. -- doug smith

Enjoy AND Improve

Do you enjoy success? If that seems like a silly question (Of COURSE I enjoy success!) think about it from another perspective. Sometimes we can taper down our enjoyment and appreciation of something because we know it's not perfect yet, and how can we be happy if it's not perfect? I do that somethings. It's not helpful. OF COURSE it's not perfect: nothing else and nothing ever will be. There are no perfect people, processes, performances, or plan. If we wait for perfection, we'll just keep waiting (and probably without gaining ground...) Let's do both. Let's enjoy our current level of success and achievement while also working to improve it. Performance must constantly improve, AND we can enjoy our exiting improvements. -- doug smith

Dealing With The Past

Advice can be tricky. Have you ever heard advice that says "forget the past" or "release what was"? That could be helpful. That might be good therapy sometimes. And, sometimes it is a big mistake. The more we pretend the past doesn't matter the more likely it is to haunt us. We cannot change the past -- true. Should we ignore it? Or better yet, should we learn from it? -- doug smith Reflection: What does the image of that broken bridge remind you of in your past? Are you finished dealing with that part of your past? What did you learn?

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