They are inefficient and costly. They go on forever. They lack form or process. The wrong people attend. Many of those who do, use the time to catch up with text messages and e-mail, or indulge in a liking for the sound of their own voices.

 

At any time, one third of the people in a meeting do not care about what is being discussed; one third did, but have lost interest; and the rest seem unable to come to any agreement about anything. When the meeting is finally declared over, usually because the participants have to get to the next one, few know or will remember what was discussed or agreed, and those who can escape back to their desks, do so with relief at the opportunity to get down to some real work.

Planning a meeting starts with two key questions.

1.What is its purpose?

It is insanity to plan a meeting that does not have a clear purpose and desired outcome. The purpose can be broad; to communicate a policy statement: or specific; to approve a new company car scheme. But there must be a purpose .

2.What topics must be covered to achieve the purpose?

The topics that must be covered to achieve the purpose of a meeting form the agenda . Even if it’s only a two liner, every meeting should have an agenda, distributed beforehand.

When you have answered these two questions clearly, issues of whether you should have a meeting at all; if so, then who should attend; and where, when and how it should be run, all fall into place. All you need do after that is stick to your plan. 

A badly run meeting wastes time and money and can be worse than having no meeting at all. Getting it right is not rocket science. It starts with some basic planning.

 

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