How Do You Make Meetings More Effective?

“The main thing people hate about meetings is that they are poorly run or don’t accomplish anything,” says Glenn Parker, team building consultant and author of Meeting Excellence: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings that Get Results.

That quote is from an article I wrote last week called “Eight Steps to More Effective Meetings” and judging from the comments it has received, the subject of meetings (and how to run them) is one that stirs up a lot of passion. The article states that too many meetings or poorly run meetings can have a profound effect on the bottom line since they can lower morale. It also gives ways to make meetings more effective.

This is the thing: In an increasingly global environment and with the ever-changing team structure in most organizations, some meetings are a necessity. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. And it is true that meetings are held for different purposes and 100 percent of them can’t all be about action items. That said, employees’ time is valuable and workload in most organizations is heavy (to put it mildly). Many employees today are in situations where literally every hour counts, but where because of IM, meetings, smartphones and so on, it’s difficult to get a stretch of uninterrupted time (which I believe is truly necessary to doing your best creative work).

What do you think about meetings and their effectiveness? Do you have tried-and-true tips for making your meetings the best they can be? I’d love to hear!

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