Meetings
What is it with non-profits and meetings? I have never worked for a for-profit company (other than me!) but none of my friends who do have to attend the number of meetings I do. They are busy making money for their stockholders.
My current gigs don't require as many meetings as my previous gigs. One group I worked for required my attendance at EVERY meeting where there were more than two lawyers. I was sometimes in 5 meetings a day and I usually had to take minutes, which was possibly the only thing that kept me awake. Because I have spent 78.6% of my working life in meetings-I was going to say "adult life" until I realized that I have spent the majority of my adult life in school-I feel qualified to provide a guide for how to conduct a good meeting.
1. Do not make participants wait in the lobby or a common area until you are ready to greet them. You have called the meeting at your place of business and it is RUDE to make other people wait for you. It also does not make you look important.
2. Start the meeting on time. If others can't be on time, they can catch up later-that's their punishment. Again, it's RUDE to make other people wait.
3. Have an agenda. A well thought-out agenda. Do not have 137 items to cover in an hour meeting. Pick things you actually want people's comments on. This is not a venue for your monologue.
4. Stick to the agenda. This should go without saying but it's important. If you have wanderers, it's your job as MEETING LEADER to get the discussion back on track or save tangents until the end of the meeting. If time remains, you can discuss random thoughts, health concerns and baby names.
5. Encourage everyone's participation in the meeting. I assume you invited them to the meeting for a reason. Some are not as comfortable as others with public discussions. It is your job to get input from everyone.
6. End the meeting on time. No one will ever trust you to run a meeting again, unless they fear for their jobs, if you do not end the meeting on time. It is fraudulent and just wrong to make people stay in a meeting past the point when they thought they could leave, even if you think they have nothing better to do.
My current gigs don't require as many meetings as my previous gigs. One group I worked for required my attendance at EVERY meeting where there were more than two lawyers. I was sometimes in 5 meetings a day and I usually had to take minutes, which was possibly the only thing that kept me awake. Because I have spent 78.6% of my working life in meetings-I was going to say "adult life" until I realized that I have spent the majority of my adult life in school-I feel qualified to provide a guide for how to conduct a good meeting.
1. Do not make participants wait in the lobby or a common area until you are ready to greet them. You have called the meeting at your place of business and it is RUDE to make other people wait for you. It also does not make you look important.
2. Start the meeting on time. If others can't be on time, they can catch up later-that's their punishment. Again, it's RUDE to make other people wait.
3. Have an agenda. A well thought-out agenda. Do not have 137 items to cover in an hour meeting. Pick things you actually want people's comments on. This is not a venue for your monologue.
4. Stick to the agenda. This should go without saying but it's important. If you have wanderers, it's your job as MEETING LEADER to get the discussion back on track or save tangents until the end of the meeting. If time remains, you can discuss random thoughts, health concerns and baby names.
5. Encourage everyone's participation in the meeting. I assume you invited them to the meeting for a reason. Some are not as comfortable as others with public discussions. It is your job to get input from everyone.
6. End the meeting on time. No one will ever trust you to run a meeting again, unless they fear for their jobs, if you do not end the meeting on time. It is fraudulent and just wrong to make people stay in a meeting past the point when they thought they could leave, even if you think they have nothing better to do.
posted by Jennifer Lechner at
4:46 PM
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