Wed, Apr 04 2007

How to Hold a Meeting that Changes all other Meetings

I am notorious for loathing meetings and committees, except as true brainstorming tools. So I enjoyed reading one person's attempt to tell us all How to Hold a Meeting. There were some good points in the piece, but the truth is that there are a lot of people who simply like holding court and who don't feel that they're doing their job unless they go to a meeting and talk more than anyone else talks. I doubt that most of us could ever convince certain managers that most of their meetings are poorly run and are usually dominated by people who make no real difference to a company's service or quality.

Managers, if you want to know what's really going on in your company, stop taking all your input from middle managers, lawyers, sales people, compulsive talkers and anyone who might feel under pressure to tell you what you like to hear. Have at least one meeting a year in which you ban the usual crowd (or, at the very least, muzzle them). Invite the receptionist, the person who keeps track of lunch room supplies, a field service rep, the newest person from shipping, whoever empties the wastebaskets and whoever gets to work earliest in the morning (and shame on you if you can't name that last person). If you can pull it off, call in the spouses or young children of at least two of your other employees. Ask those kids to draw pictures of their parent at work and to tell you about why they drew what they did. You'll learn things you never knew about your employees and your company. And you'll gain insight on how to energize the rest of your meetings all year long.

posted at: 10:20 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry